Plastic Recycling Myth

Recycling threads, recycled:Oil Companies Touted Recycling to Sell More Plastic - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24454067 - Sept 2020 (232 comments)How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24441979</

Why isn't recycling a reasonable solution?

"recycling" is mostly an illusion

Threads about recycling have started to pile up just like the recycling has. A list of the major ones is below (but only with "recycl" in the title—if you find more, let me know!)Given the current picture, perhaps most interesting in retrospect is this 1996 article (which apparently set a record for hate mail) and its sequel from 2015:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9757853</a

Why can't we simply collect this material after use and recycle it?

That probably means that recycling is not worth it, so the only responsible way is to reduce its usage as much as possible (reusing or replacing with better solutions)

Why consume when you can recycle?

Reuse is better than recycling, so what's the problem?

Plastic recycling is a scam indeed, see previous HN discussion:https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24714880

Globally only 9% [1] of plastic waste is recycled, and there's a lot of reasons why. It can be dirty, contaminated, low-grade, or simply require more inputs than producing new plastic. The idea that plastic can be meaningfully recycled was an oil industry propaganda campaign to make people feel better about consuming it.The only way to really make a dent here is to reduce consumption.We do agree though that the externalities should be priced in and that is a good use of government.