<
https://www.sciencealert.com/all-that-plastic-that-ends-up-in-landfill-is-worth-billions-scientists-say>
"In 2019, the United States sent an average of US$7.2 billion dollars worth of
plastic to landfill, according to new estimates from the Department of Energy
(DOE).
When considering the price of manufacturing, marketing and processing all that
trashed material, the costs to the economy are significant. Nor does that
consider the environmental price of plastic pollution.
While landfills are often considered the cheapest way to dispose of waste, in
many ways that's a shortsighted approach. Setting up a system of recycling may
cost more initially, but in the long run, a circular economy of plastics could
save big bucks, anywhere between US$4.5 billion and US$9.9 billion.
At the moment, recycling plastic is more expensive than making new plastic,
which means companies have little incentive to dig through landfills for old
materials. In many ways that's because petroleum products are so cheap, but
their inexpensiveness hides a deeper cost to our planet and, down the line, our
economy.
According to the recent DOE analysis, about 44 million tons (Mt) of plastic
waste were managed by private and public companies in the US in 2019.
That's way more than the number reported by the US Environmental Protection
Agency, which sits around 32 million metric tons of plastic waste.
In 2019, researchers estimate only 5 percent of all that plastic was recycled.
Meanwhile, about 86 percent was landfilled."
Via Rixty Dixet.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
