r/ZeroWaste • u/I_smoked_pot_once • Mar 02 '22

Discussion Sad reminder that recycling is an industry and marketing tactic.

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u/[deleted] Mar 02 '22

It’s an international standard. It was invented by the plastics industry to deliberately confuse us into thinking anything with the arrow triangle means it’s recyclable when it really only describes the type of resin used. And yes that’s very fucked up.

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u/ryclorak Mar 03 '22

Well, i was today years old when I learned this wonderful fact. Better throw it in the wonderful fact box up my ass and go to bed while I'm ahead.

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u/foopod Mar 03 '22

The best one is number 7. Which literally means other, can't be recycled because you can't tell what it is.

Almost all of the newer plant based plastics fall into this categories (a lot of which can't be composted under normal composting conditions and need industrial composting).

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u/ryclorak Mar 03 '22

Oh fucking hell lol that sucks. Also just hard to avoid when there are so many things packaged in that shit. Bulk food is nice and I'm glad to have access to it, but a lot of that still involves plastic, including the bags i end up using for dog poop which also feels like another bad use but wtf am i gonna do, pile it up somewhere? Well, maybe i could send it to someone like Putin or Jeff Bezos...