<story><title>Much US “recycling” goes straight to the landfill</title><url>https://futurism.com/plastic-recycling-landfill-greenpeace</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thwayunion</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt;  Friendly reminder that modern, well regulated landfills are actually fine and there is plenty of space for them.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I guess this depends on your tax bracket and political bargaining power. I grew up smelling (and smelling like) solid waste trucked in from the waste treatment facility for the richer suburbs in a racially segregated metro area. The less PC way of sating that is &amp;quot;concentrated rich 95% white person shit&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;And let me tell you: despite what they think, MD&amp;#x2F;JD&amp;#x2F;MBA shit does not smell like roses. The smell permeated the entire community for days at a time, every month. I also now have a whole set of recommended annual cancer screenings. All from a modern and well regulated landfill that is still in operation.&lt;p&gt;I shit you not: we had movie days in high school that corresponded with the worse smelling days. Just whole days&amp;#x2F;weeks of lost learning, regularly, because the whole place smelled like literal human shit.&lt;p&gt;Now I live in a snow white upper middle class suburb and those problems are behind me, but I&amp;#x27;m still very conscious about where my waste &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; ends up and have gone to war in more than city council meeting about where our literal shit ends up.&lt;p&gt;But, again, if you have a FAANG salary then your shit and trash will be shipped to someone else&amp;#x27;s community and it&amp;#x27;s not your problem. Waste away! &amp;#x2F;s</text></item><item><author>nickpinkston</author><text>Friendly reminder that modern, well regulated landfills are actually fine and there is plenty of space for them.&lt;p&gt;Also, most of the ocean plastic comes from a small number of rivers in the less developed world. [1] Rich countries aren&amp;#x27;t really the problem.&lt;p&gt;While we should try to reduce waste as much as possible. This is far more effective at the front end of the process when they&amp;#x27;re designed and produced, the vast amount of carbon is from direct carbon from production and follow on carbon from the carbon intensity of the products under use.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scientificamerican.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;stemming-the-plastic-tide-10-rivers-contribute-most-of-the-plastic-in-the-oceans&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scientificamerican.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;stemming-the-plas...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nickpinkston</author><text>I lived near waste center myself (sewage treatment plant in Bayview SF) with all the smells it emitted, but I&amp;#x27;m still really glad it exists!&lt;p&gt;It definitely should be regulated to not offgas like that, but we can&amp;#x2F;should solve those problems. It wouldn&amp;#x27;t even be that hard - probably like $10-50M or so.&lt;p&gt;We need to address the lack of true democratic representation in those communities allows those problems to persist. It&amp;#x27;s not because of lack of tech or finance.</text></comment>
<story><title>Much US “recycling” goes straight to the landfill</title><url>https://futurism.com/plastic-recycling-landfill-greenpeace</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thwayunion</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt;  Friendly reminder that modern, well regulated landfills are actually fine and there is plenty of space for them.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I guess this depends on your tax bracket and political bargaining power. I grew up smelling (and smelling like) solid waste trucked in from the waste treatment facility for the richer suburbs in a racially segregated metro area. The less PC way of sating that is &amp;quot;concentrated rich 95% white person shit&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;And let me tell you: despite what they think, MD&amp;#x2F;JD&amp;#x2F;MBA shit does not smell like roses. The smell permeated the entire community for days at a time, every month. I also now have a whole set of recommended annual cancer screenings. All from a modern and well regulated landfill that is still in operation.&lt;p&gt;I shit you not: we had movie days in high school that corresponded with the worse smelling days. Just whole days&amp;#x2F;weeks of lost learning, regularly, because the whole place smelled like literal human shit.&lt;p&gt;Now I live in a snow white upper middle class suburb and those problems are behind me, but I&amp;#x27;m still very conscious about where my waste &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; ends up and have gone to war in more than city council meeting about where our literal shit ends up.&lt;p&gt;But, again, if you have a FAANG salary then your shit and trash will be shipped to someone else&amp;#x27;s community and it&amp;#x27;s not your problem. Waste away! &amp;#x2F;s</text></item><item><author>nickpinkston</author><text>Friendly reminder that modern, well regulated landfills are actually fine and there is plenty of space for them.&lt;p&gt;Also, most of the ocean plastic comes from a small number of rivers in the less developed world. [1] Rich countries aren&amp;#x27;t really the problem.&lt;p&gt;While we should try to reduce waste as much as possible. This is far more effective at the front end of the process when they&amp;#x27;re designed and produced, the vast amount of carbon is from direct carbon from production and follow on carbon from the carbon intensity of the products under use.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scientificamerican.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;stemming-the-plastic-tide-10-rivers-contribute-most-of-the-plastic-in-the-oceans&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.scientificamerican.com&amp;#x2F;article&amp;#x2F;stemming-the-plas...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kotlin2</author><text>That’s a solvable problem though. Regulations could be changed to require more buffer areas for the landfill.&lt;p&gt;Also, another thing to think about it is that your parents likely picked the best place available for their means. Not many people choose to live next to landfills if they can afford something better. Had the landfill not existed, your parents would have likely needed to live next to some other type of hazard. It’s unfortunate, but a reality of our economic system.</text></comment>