Just read this article and realized I can't understand why plastic packaging was not recycled until now. What is so hard about it that EU sorted out already?

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/life-aging/first-municipalities-begin-swiss-wide-plastic-packaging-recycling-scheme/88738025

by PieceRough

15 comments

  1. Dont we recycle some of these (mainly shampoo and cleaners) at coop/migros? Will we finally be able to recycle milk kartons and tetrapak? Will it be a kunstoff container like Germany?

  2. Because plastic is not plastic.

    E.g. A The Tetra Pak pack contains a total of six layers in this order: polyethylene, paperboard, polyethylene, aluminum foil, polyethylene and polyethylene.

    To be able to recycle it, you have to be able to separate it industrially. And some plastics contain harmful additives.

    Plastic was once oil, if we burn it and use the heat for something useful its not wasted.

    https://baug.ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/news/2024/03/blog-recycling-plastic-is-not-a-quick-fix.html

  4. Im so extremely duspicious of that. Plastics are notoriously hard to recycle since they are made up of different extremely long molecules that love sticking together, so it takes a lot of energy to split them up, that’s also why there are the different types of plastic(Hdpe, Pet,…), which already were being “recycled”. From what I’ve heard they are mostly collected and then later burned, since no one uses them properly, but that may be outdated information.
    Dome countried also have landfills, which, really isn’t much better.

  5. Because plastic recycling is really not worth much with some exceptions, and gives a false sense of reducing waste.
    In a system like the Swiss one, where waste is incinerated, allowing plastic in waste is not a bad solution (compared to landfills for example).

    The main exception is PET plastic, which is pretty valuable when recycled.

    Second best the hard plastic of shampoo/detergents. It won’t become good plastic anymore, but it could be used for some low grade plastic products like solid toys, insulation, benches, etc.

    Everything else is basically trash despite the effort of packaging companies to pretend it’s recyclable. Almost a scam. Starting from the “resin identification code” that is suspiciously similar to the recycling symbol but doesn’t mean anything in terms of recyclability. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resin_identification_code

    In short, it is annoying to see that plastic is trash, but it is. Buy less plastic if you want to throw away less plastic.

  6. Something seems off with the article. Do they only mean Tetra Pak by “plastic”? Because PET has had very high recycling rates for years, and PE is also recyclable in most supermarkets since many years.

    Some types of plastic are not great to recycle (loss of material and high energy cost), so it’s just as well to burn them for energy recovery when you have decently clean incineration.

  7. Sounds like another money scheme that will simply ship trash to other countries so they can claim it‘s being recycled.

  8. Where is the evidence about the EU and how they sorted it out?

  9. Ask yourself where the plastic goes that is collected in EU? There is no such thing as recycling of plastics, call it down cycling. Most of the German plastic trash was shipped to china not long ago. Then china said we don’t want your trash anymore because they were downing in it

    Now Switzerland: here the concept is to burn the trash in special facilities with expensive filters on top to prevent problematic substances from being released to the environment. The energy that is created during the process is mostly used to heat apartments etc. (Abwärme)

    By the way: my chemistry teacher in Germany said in the nineties that the swiss model is best.

  10. “EU sorted out” I doubt so. Maybe some separate these packaging but it doesn’t mean they are actually recycled. EU is a regulations machine just for the purpose to make themselves look better.

  11. We recycle it into Fernwärme, much better than putting it on a oil guzzling container ship to China.

    The EU will sort trash slightly better, so they can also burn it or ship it to China.

  12. France has managed to begin the process just by sheer force. And there are companies that are recycling plastic.

    [https://www.paprec.com/en/our-solutions/the-materials-we-recover/plastics/](https://www.paprec.com/en/our-solutions/the-materials-we-recover/plastics/)

    In France the way they combat food waste is to force the stores to distribute the food to needy people. As a result when food gets close to expiration instead of being forced to distribute, or pay fines you get rebated food. I always look for those counters as most things can be eaten beyond the expiry (eg yoghurt). They also use plastic that decomposes and use less plastic period.

  13. What is the differece between this new project and the Kuh Bag?

  14. Because plastic recycling is basically bullshit (just take a look at this for example: [https://www.earthday.org/plastic-recycling-is-a-lie/](https://www.earthday.org/plastic-recycling-is-a-lie/)

    Don’t get me started about how for many countries “recycled” goods end up in south east asia.

    [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/southeast-asia-flooded-with-imported-plastic-waste-meant-for-recycling](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/southeast-asia-flooded-with-imported-plastic-waste-meant-for-recycling)

    [https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/environment-climate/webstories/waste-trafficking-southeast-asia.html](https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/environment-climate/webstories/waste-trafficking-southeast-asia.html)

    No seriously.

  15. In Belgium we put all plastics in blue bags to be recycled. It has been so for at least 15 years now, even some specific plastics were added…
    When I visit Switzerland I’m always astonished most of the plastics are sorted for nothing but burning it… Time to change that!

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