> we've been burying our waste because it's too expensive to reclaim the plastic.
Good. That's literally the most correct thing that can possibly be done with this waste. It's _never_ going to be recycled, at least not with current technology, because it takes more energy to get usable plastic out the other side than does sourcing new plastic. It's simply not worth it.
Bury it.
You think we're going to run out of space? You think we can't handle preventing runoff into the ocean? These are solved problems - all we have to do is to admit to ourselves that we're going to be burying a ton of plastic waste, and then ensure that every single unrecyclable scrap of it actually does get buried. We need to export our best practices for waste management to help other countries bury their plastic, and sell some of our gargantuan amounts of land space to bury plastic for smaller countries that don't have the space. It simply is what it is.
We don't have to give up plastic in order to prevent it from going into the ocean. What we do have to do is to understand that plastic, as an artifact of an advanced civilization, rests on the fundamental requirement of having implemented of all the waste management infrastructure also. If you don't have that, you're not ready for plastic!
Yet, we've exported tons of it to the third world where waste management is simply not a thing - sewers aren't even a thing - and then we act surprised when they throw useless plastic into the river, until you end up with this:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=garbage+river
We do not see this in the first world! Nobody is doing that here, which is why I vehemently reject the guilt trip people want to put us on with regards to plastic. We have this amazing technological invention, the "garbageman", who with his truck is able to keep our civilization pretty damned clean. Remember to thank yours.
How do we export this incredible innovation to Africa, India, etc. so that their garbage rivers become livable homes for aquatic life once more? Seems to be a lot more difficult than it should be, but I am really lacking in any kind of understanding of why that would be.
Good. That's literally the most correct thing that can possibly be done with this waste. It's _never_ going to be recycled, at least not with current technology, because it takes more energy to get usable plastic out the other side than does sourcing new plastic. It's simply not worth it.
Bury it.
You think we're going to run out of space? You think we can't handle preventing runoff into the ocean? These are solved problems - all we have to do is to admit to ourselves that we're going to be burying a ton of plastic waste, and then ensure that every single unrecyclable scrap of it actually does get buried. We need to export our best practices for waste management to help other countries bury their plastic, and sell some of our gargantuan amounts of land space to bury plastic for smaller countries that don't have the space. It simply is what it is.
We don't have to give up plastic in order to prevent it from going into the ocean. What we do have to do is to understand that plastic, as an artifact of an advanced civilization, rests on the fundamental requirement of having implemented of all the waste management infrastructure also. If you don't have that, you're not ready for plastic!
Yet, we've exported tons of it to the third world where waste management is simply not a thing - sewers aren't even a thing - and then we act surprised when they throw useless plastic into the river, until you end up with this:
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=garbage+river
We do not see this in the first world! Nobody is doing that here, which is why I vehemently reject the guilt trip people want to put us on with regards to plastic. We have this amazing technological invention, the "garbageman", who with his truck is able to keep our civilization pretty damned clean. Remember to thank yours.
How do we export this incredible innovation to Africa, India, etc. so that their garbage rivers become livable homes for aquatic life once more? Seems to be a lot more difficult than it should be, but I am really lacking in any kind of understanding of why that would be.