cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/42447832
Malaysia emerged as a major destination for U.S. waste after China banned U.S. waste imports in 2018.
Archived version: https://archive.is/20250626132109/https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-06-26/malaysia-bans-us-plastic-waste-what-will-california-do
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
GOOD, STOP TAKING OUR TRASH! Make us deal with the problem and come up with a real long term solution, Tired of these short term “Solutions”
We may need to find an actual solution to all that plastic.
But I’m hearing innovative new ideas in that field. One researcher has proposed an interesting solution, it’s called “aluminum cans” it sounds crazy, and who knows if it could possibly work at scale, but it’s a neat idea.
Aluminium cans have a plastic lining. We used to have glass bottles. That worked.
Sure, but that plastic lining is a tiny amount of plastic, practically insignificant by mass.
And sure, glass works too, that’s fine with me. But it’s not simply better. It comes with the downsides of being heavier (requiring more energy to transport), less durable, and requiring more energy to recycle. It’s a trade off.
Currently, aluminum has the highest rate of recycling of all beverage materials. So why not double down on the most successful packaging type in the history of recycling?
The argument against glass is the weight. It increases CO2 emissions from the transportation.
Waxed paper and cardboard seem like good options for non liquids.
I feel like refillable bottles would be amazing for stuff that doesn’t perish.
If only we had the technology to create some kind of light weight glass.
Made from petroleum? I think we tried that.
But it’s a good point, I wonder how glass bottles made from gorilla glass would hold up.
Dump it in the nearest red state as a thank you for pushing so hard to elect a candidate who thought tariffs had no bad consequences .
Shoving garbage to another country, while very american, isn’t really a good solution to begin with.
Red state are in the same country
Good. We need to stop producing so much plastic waste.
Good. We need to stop producing so much plastic
waste.FTFY
Put it on a bus and send it to a republican state.
Send it as raw materials to fortify trumps wall
You still do landfill in the US? That’s so … 20th century.
Which is crazy, because the country itself is more like the 18th century
They should never have started in the first place. Coming from a Malaysian.
Ship it back to the manufacturers
Plastic waste is a dilemma for the whole world. Unless its intended to become the fuel source for the next evolution of Earth’s dominant global species of course.
Isnt plastic made from oil already?
Most plastics, some are organically sources
Yeah and fucking PLA (made from cornstarch) is marketed as “compostable” which is even worse for the environment because people feel like it gives them the free pass to toss it on the ground.
Sink it in concrete blocks next to Lindberg field SanDiego international airport so they can finally expand it. But definitely don’t add a trolley station anywhere near. Inconvenient transportation is why we travel. That and getting covid.
The Middletown stop on the blue line is out of service?
I just read about toxic tofu production in Indonesia (nearby country) that burns plastic as a primary fuel source to fry up tofu. We’re surrounded by plastics and have nowhere to put the waste.
Maybe use some that AI shit to engineer some microbes that can eat plastic. Or I dunno make less plastic waste?
AI sure can fix this problem. “Sure, I can help with that. Here’s your rhetorical web article about recycling actually being a sign of homosexuality or closeted femininty, aimed at 25 to 65 year old conservative men in your electorate, as requested. Let me know if you want any modifications”.
Lol I think they’re already using the same technology that is used by AI to do biochemistry, so I didn’t mean “ask chatGPT.”
Sigh, just send it to us in Sweden, we’ll burn in cleanly and recover energy from it.
Does that work? I don’t think you can burn plastic cleanly…
You can it’s just expensive and requires additional fuel.
It sometimes requires “reburning” the combustion exhaust at higher temperatures. But combustion can eventually break down the majority of molecules into something safe. And then if things still need to be removed from the exhaust, you can use processes similar to the catalytic converter in your car, but again, not cheap.
Interesting, but it does sound like they are burning the general waste left over after splitting for recycling. I.e. not a lot of plastic.
Well they’re splitting recycling, but plastic, generally speaking is not recyclable. So it’s the paper and metals that are being split off, the plastic goes in with everything else.
There are some plastics that are theoretically recyclable, but even that isn’t really recycling is down-cycling turning a plastic into an interior plastic that isn’t recyclable at all. Or repurposing and reusing a plastic, perhaps as pillow stuffing or melting it down with other things to make road paving material.
But the life of plastic is never a cycle, it’s a path that can sometimes be extended a bit.
