Plastics are a favorite material of mine that I’ve learned to love and dislike. Just because they come from petroleum doesn’t matter to me that much; in so many ways they’ve been a miracle for mankind. It’s just the waste that bothers me, particularly in the ocean.
Until one year ago, I thought that all plastics thrown into the recycling bin would be happily saved from a landfilled destiny. But through conversations and online articles, I came to learn that PET (polyethylene terephthalate #1) was the likeliest candidate to be sorted out simply because they’re often used for bottles. HDPE (#2), LDPE (#4), and polypropylene (#5) had medium chances; and polystyrene (#6), polyvinyl chloride (#3), and polycarbonates (#7) had the lowest chances - btw, these last three are bad and if you want to know why, ask me in the comments.
Alas though, technology has been improving in sorting out various plastics. While I’m not familiar with how good RecycleBank is at it, given their business model I’d assume they’d want to maximize their volume of plastic waste collected-to-sold ratio. Interestingly though, I found this video from a plastics conference that enlightened me to innovative techniques in the coming years.
Now to be honest, I don’t know what the future holds for bioplastics which are a very mixed bag in themselves. Human behavior would suggest for one that if it doesn’t look like wood or leaves, it’ll go into the mixed waste or recyclables bin. Since there’s no official classification for bioplastics, they’re most likely to be landfilled or perhaps incinerated. The first scenario isn’t necessarily bad since it will supposedly degrade over time, but it’s still a cradle-to-grave scenario (which eco-philosophists care to avoid). The incineration option though, along with other municipal solid waste, could provide fuel for power plants.
In any case, the future is getting brighter.
