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

[adamXpeter]

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.

The wasteful person found out that plastic (no mention of contaminated plastic) is not recycled as promised.
Press asked, and found that that is the truth. Her plastic never went to any cap-removing device nor grinder, it sits under the Sun.

And we all know what UV light does to plastic.

Plus winds.

 

[ingtar33]

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.

i cannot explain why they take 1-7, it's well documented 1&2 are the only two which can be recycled, and even 1&2 can't be fully recycled, only part of the plastic can be repurposed.

Is it possible they're burning 3-7 to help recycle 1&2? plastic is basically hydrocarbons, there is a lot of energy stored in it where you could burn it to provide energy (heat) to recycle the recyclable plastics. that could be how they cut down on plastic waste by burning it. I'll be frank, i don't know what your recycling process uses 3-7 for just guessing here. but one thing i do know is only 1&2 is being actually recycled at that facility.

 

[kevinbakon]

Duh... Should have just sent me the air tags instead of throwing them away

 

[The Historical Fidelity]

i cannot explain why they take 1-7, it's well documented 1&2 are the only two which can be recycled, and even 1&2 can't be fully recycled, only part of the plastic can be repurposed.

Is it possible they're burning 3-7 to help recycle 1&2? plastic is basically hydrocarbons, there is a lot of energy stored in it where you could burn it to provide energy (heat) to recycle the recyclable plastics. that could be how they cut down on plastic waste by burning it. I'll be frank, i don't know what your recycling process uses 3-7 for just guessing here. but one thing i do know is only 1&2 is being actually recycled at that facility.

That may be true for traditional recycling facilities, but this is a brand new advanced plastics recycling process so I doubt they are burning it as Irving’s air quality index is mostly in the 20’s and 30’s and rarely over 50.

 

[darussian12]

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.

did you even read the article or just the headline and felt need to chime in based on a sentence. the how you can track is because its not being "recycled", just piled up in a big lot.

 

[bill001g]

did you even read the article or just the headline and felt need to chime in based on a sentence. the how you can track is because its not being "recycled", just piled up in a big lot.

Not sure how much of the thread you read. The discussion was it could have been run through the first stage of the recycling. They generally remove cardboard and type 1 plastic and likely metal. What is left is many times sent to another location. In addition very small items like a air tag are filtered out and dumped because they might jam the machinery.

In the end it means nothing unless they can prove the material was never recycled and is also is not being stored to be recycled in the future.