News Texas resident used Apple AirTags to discover plastics taken to Houston recycling centers aren't being recycled

[Admin]

A Houston resident discovered that their recyclable trash isn't being processed when the AirTags they used to track the recyclables show them sitting in a private open-air lot.

Texas resident used Apple AirTags to discover plastics taken to Houston recycling centers aren't being recycled : Read more

 

[Notton]

If you looked into the history of plastic "recycling" this wouldn't come as a surprise.

It's one of the biggest scams that the plastics industry (big oil) sold to the public. They were fully aware that plastic recycling wasn't feasible back in the 70's, and it still isn't feasible in the 20's.

They made us, the public, believe that the responsibility is on us, "to do our part", instead of the company making the offending product.

 

[Findecanor]

This is plastics recycling in the US. Specifically, this is plastics recycling in Texas.
I don't have much faith in the US, and especially in Texas caring much for the environment at all.

Don't lump all recyclers together. Just because there are bad actors in the US (exactly as predicted) there are not bad actors everywhere, and it does not prove in any way that plastics recycling couldn't work.

 

[USAFRet]

This is plastics recycling in the US. Specifically, this is plastics recycling in Texas.
I don't have much faith in the US, and especially in Texas caring much for the environment at all.

Don't lump all recyclers together. Just because there are bad actors in the US (exactly as predicted) there are not bad actors everywhere, and it does not prove in any way that plastics recycling couldn't work.

Don't poke at only the US and Texas.

https://www.sustainableplastics.com...d-meet-waste-collection-and-recycling-targets

https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/Fraud-of-Plastic-Recycling-2024.pdf

https://financialpost.com/commoditi...ion-for-plastic-waste-littered-with-failure-2

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/critics-call-out-plastics-industry-over-fraud-of-plastic-recycling/

 

[ezst036]

Not surprised this hasn't changed.

We always get these messages from the government and the politicians to do our part and recycle, and they setup these programs and initiatives for recycling. I remember seeing them as a kid. "It's the three R's!"

I always felt recycling was just something they wanted us to do as a form of "busywork" to waste our time in our garages so we couldn't look at how badly they're legislating and squandering tax dollars.

Next thing you know the people who have been in office for the last 30 years are going to campaign on "we're going to fix this" if you just elect us meanwhile they've been in office for the last 30 years. You're the guys who did this. Why aren't you fixing it right now and why didn't you fix it a decade ago? You do not get to campaign as if you are entirely disconnected from the office you are currently elected to.

 

[OnlyWohanWay]

How can you track recycling with an Apple Air tag. Apple Air tag is not a recyclable plastic. If the recycling is done properly, the air tag is going to get removed. This test can't prove anything.

 

[zrobalance]

The point of her "test" and the story was that her tag ended up in a storage lot rather than a recycling center. I was shocked to see that people still think recycling is happening in their area. Most waste in "recycling" bins ends up in landfills in the U,S.

 

[Giroro]

"Exxon will superheat and then chemically treat the plastics for recycling to turn them into new plastic products or fuel."

At least Exxon understands that plastic is essentially a hydrocarbon, and burning it to generate power usually makes a lot more sense than most other options. Although Exxon should not be trying to trick people into thinking that energy-recovery incineration is some kind of new advanced recycling, because it's not.

Still it's a much better option than just pulling out the metal and dumping the plastic in the ocean, which is what was happening when we were paying companies promising to recycle it overseas.

 

[The Historical Fidelity]

This is plastics recycling in the US. Specifically, this is plastics recycling in Texas.
I don't have much faith in the US, and especially in Texas caring much for the environment at all.

Don't lump all recyclers together. Just because there are bad actors in the US (exactly as predicted) there are not bad actors everywhere, and it does not prove in any way that plastics recycling couldn't work.

Hahaha and don’t lump all of Texas into that. I live in Irving that is one of the only cities in the country that has its own dedicated recycling facility (1) and we are planning to expand the size to allow other cities in Texas to send their recycling to us.

And the Houston project is not an actual recycling facility. It is a prototype part of the pre-processing plan for Irving’s recycling facility aimed to find a way to treat type 4 plastics as well as plastic containers that contained hazardous chemicals like motor oil, pesticides, etc. to allow them to be processed at the Irving facility. This is why they are saying they need enough stockpiled material to experiment and hone in on the best industrial scale process.

But like all things media these days, it’s less “reporting” and more “sensationalizing”

https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/ne...ns-at-large-scale-advanced-recycling-facility

 

[Thalek]

Hahaha and don’t lump all of Texas into that. I live in Irving that is one of the only cities in the country that has its own dedicated recycling facility (1) and we are planning to expand the size to allow other cities in Texas to send their recycling to us.

And the Houston project is not an actual recycling facility. It is a prototype part of the pre-processing plan for Irving’s recycling facility aimed to find a way to treat type 4 plastics as well as plastic containers that contained hazardous chemicals like motor oil, pesticides, etc. to allow them to be processed at the Irving facility. This is why they are saying they need enough stockpiled material to experiment and hone in on the best industrial scale process.

But like all things media these days, it’s less “reporting” and more “sensationalizing”

https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/ne...ns-at-large-scale-advanced-recycling-facility

Anything released to the public by Exxon/ExxonMobil since the 80's regarding plastics recycling is a public relations smokescreen.

"We don't have to be committed to the results, we just have to be committed to the message."

 

[bill001g]

Even if had been taken to one of the so called recycle places most times they run it though a big tromel that gets rid of small things like bottle caps and other stuff that would jamb the machines up. The airtag would fall out the bottom and be dumped into a trash bin and likely taken to the land fill. Unless you could track the airtag all the way people would assume it was taken directly to the land fill.

 

[The Historical Fidelity]

Anything released to the public by Exxon/ExxonMobil since the 80's regarding plastics recycling is a public relations smokescreen.

"We don't have to be committed to the results, we just have to be committed to the message."

I don’t disagree, but I live in Irving and have visited the site. It’s real and legitimate. Plus our independent oversight board releases recycle data routinely that is audited by a 3rd party regulatory board as a requirement of using our property taxes to pay for the recycle facility. If Exxon was F’ing us over, it would be pretty hard to hide it.

 

[The Historical Fidelity]

Even if had been taken to one of the so called recycle places most times they run it though a big tromel that gets rid of small things like bottle caps and other stuff that would jamb the machines up. The airtag would fall out the bottom and be dumped into a trash bin and likely taken to the land fill. Unless you could track the airtag all the way people would assume it was taken directly to the land fill.

Very true and entirely what could have happened

 

[Gururu]

The bigger scandal would be if it was California.

 

[USAFRet]

The bigger scandal would be if it was California.

California is not special on the fail spectrum.

https://www.kqed.org/news/11901288/...rnias-plastic-problem-and-what-to-do-about-it

https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-con...fornia-Recycling-Failed-and-How-to-Fix-It.pdf

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-02-22/california-plastic-waste-ban-recycling

https://www.beyondplastics.org/news-stories/california-plastic-bag-ban-failure

 

[Gururu]

California is not special on the fail spectrum.

https://www.kqed.org/news/11901288/...rnias-plastic-problem-and-what-to-do-about-it

https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-con...fornia-Recycling-Failed-and-How-to-Fix-It.pdf

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-02-22/california-plastic-waste-ban-recycling

https://www.beyondplastics.org/news-stories/california-plastic-bag-ban-failure

Yes, that should have been the headline!

 

[Kondamin]

Sort out the PET and use it as fuel, storing the rest shouldn’t be to much of an issue.

 

[froggx]

How can you track recycling with an Apple Air tag. Apple Air tag is not a recyclable plastic. If the recycling is done properly, the air tag is going to get removed. This test can't prove anything.

That doesn't follow. Reading the article tells how the air tag proved that the recycling is not being done properly so the air tag wasn't removed.

 

[USAFRet]

That doesn't follow. Reading the article tells how the air tag proved that the recycling is not being done properly so the air tag wasn't removed.

The Air Tag does not seem to track the material to its ultimate destination.
Just that it stopped at a lot somewhere.

 

[DavidC1]

Don't poke at only the US and Texas.

https://www.sustainableplastics.com...d-meet-waste-collection-and-recycling-targets

https://climateintegrity.org/uploads/media/Fraud-of-Plastic-Recycling-2024.pdf

https://financialpost.com/commoditi...ion-for-plastic-waste-littered-with-failure-2

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/critics-call-out-plastics-industry-over-fraud-of-plastic-recycling/

Add Australia to that too.

Face it, most of public recycling and environmental initiatives are similar to social justice warriors and is just meant to make the proponents feel good, not actually do anything.

Besides, with countless amount of plastics out there with varying degrees of requirements, it's exceedingly difficult to recycle or repurpose them. And most are filthy dirty, so you need to find a way to clean them somehow.

It's not like the car in Back to the Future where you put anything in and Voila! desirable plastics come out. You need to clean them, sort them, and then figure out what to do with it.

 

[cryoburner]

So, thanks to Apple AirTags, we’ve discovered the plastic trash slated for recycling is just piling up while the processing facility is waiting for its machinery to arrive.

This seems like a non-issue. The plastic is still scheduled to be repurposed. It's not like storing it for some time while a facility is being built will likely affect where it will eventually end up. Who cares if it is piling up? It sounds like the facility will need a steady supply of material on-hand when it opens to ensure continuous operation, so that seems like a perfectly sensible solution. It's possible that the facility might not be as environmentally-friendly as some other options, but the fact that the material is being temporarily stockpiled instead of getting fully processed right away should not matter.

The real story should be about the wasteful person who considered it a reasonable idea to throw away a perfectly functional tracking device just so they could virtue-signal online, while polluting a batch of recyclable plastic with a lithium battery and other components. And of course, the click-bait journalists who likewise regurgitate non-stories like this and skew the perspective for ad revenue without care of whether or not the story has any real merit.

I remember seeing them as a kid. "It's the three R's!"

The biggest part of "The Three Rs" should be the first two, reducing and reusing, so that there is less to recycle or otherwise dispose of. Too often people buy lots of things that they really don't need, and throw them away when they are still perfectly functional or repairable. A person who considers a working tracking device to be disposable might be the kind of person who is the center of the problem, frequently replacing and tossing out electronics and other things as soon as something new arrives.

And they may have had good intentions and just wanted to verify that the plastic wasn't being sent directly to a landfill, but even then it would be hard to tell if the tracking device wasn't simply sorted out due to it obviously not being recyclable, at least without more advanced processing.

 

[ingtar33]

This is plastics recycling in the US. Specifically, this is plastics recycling in Texas.
I don't have much faith in the US, and especially in Texas caring much for the environment at all.

Don't lump all recyclers together. Just because there are bad actors in the US (exactly as predicted) there are not bad actors everywhere, and it does not prove in any way that plastics recycling couldn't work.

2% of plastics are actually recyclable. it doesn't matter if we're talking texas, california, canada or france or the moon. the problem is the vast majority of plastics cannot be recycled. if you want to know which plastic is recyclable in any way whatsoever look for the recycle mark on it, if the number in the mark is a 1 or a 2 (they go up to 9) it's marginally recyclable. if its any other number it's impossible to recycle.

the actual story in this article was exxon claiming they could recycle more then the standard 1 or 2 types of plastic, which sounds like a fantasy to me. the plastic industry has long known you can't recycle most plastics. and according to this article, it does in fact sound like a fantasy that they sold the city of houston.

that you think plastics are recyclable at all in any significant way means you need to educate yourself on plastic recycling and not buy the fantasy sold by your government or schools.

 

[BTM18]

This is plastics recycling in the US. Specifically, this is plastics recycling in Texas.
I don't have much faith in the US, and especially in Texas caring much for the environment at all.

Don't lump all recyclers together. Just because there are bad actors in the US (exactly as predicted) there are not bad actors everywhere, and it does not prove in any way that plastics recycling couldn't work.

Yes, it really does. Plastic recycling is a LIE. Every country, every time.

 

[The Historical Fidelity]

2% of plastics are actually recyclable. it doesn't matter if we're talking texas, california, canada or france or the moon. the problem is the vast majority of plastics cannot be recycled. if you want to know which plastic is recyclable in any way whatsoever look for the recycle mark on it, if the number in the mark is a 1 or a 2 (they go up to 9) it's marginally recyclable. if its any other number it's impossible to recycle.

the actual story in this article was exxon claiming they could recycle more then the standard 1 or 2 types of plastic, which sounds like a fantasy to me. the plastic industry has long known you can't recycle most plastics. and according to this article, it does in fact sound like a fantasy that they sold the city of houston.

that you think plastics are recyclable at all in any significant way means you need to educate yourself on plastic recycling and not buy the fantasy sold by your government or schools.

Funny, cause my recycling facility takes 1-3 and 5-7 and I do not see any mounds of plastic anywhere including the city dump. Perhaps you need to re-educate yourself on modern advanced processees.

 

[scoutsheep]

Fyi. They may recycle SOME of our recyclables. Most of it is put on a barge, then dumped in the ocean.