Did you know you have to wash your recyclable waste
in order for it to be actually recycled?
In May, Malaysia received 100 tonnes of rotting waste,
allegedly “full of maggots” from Australia.
Not long after,
the Philippines announced it would be returning 69 containers of contaminated waste to Canada.
Both countries had sent their waste to Malaysia and the Philippines for recycling,
but neither complied with recycling regulations.
But it’s not just waste that we humans are messing up.
Forests are burning down.
Icebergs are melting.
Animals are going extinct.
The list goes on.
The environment is sending us clear warning signs and we need to act fast.
The 2019 Amazon Fires sparked a worldwide conversation about
environmental conservation and human greed,
but is there something we can do other than share photos to raise awareness?
Many of us are familiar with phrases like
“Reuse, reduce, recycle” and “Going green”
however, do we really know what they mean?
We all want to save Mother Earth.
But are we on the right path?
Or are we actually doing our planet Earth a disservice by blindly following eco-friendly myths?
You’re watching Explore Mode and today we are debunking some eco-friendly myths and
hopefully shedding a light on how to actually help our planet.
Myth number one:
The “Chasing Arrows” icon means the item is recyclable.
The recycling symbol is universally recognized.
A 2014 survey by Taylor Nelson Sofres,
known as TNS Global,
shows that around 83 percent of American respondents recognize it.
But this doesn’t mean that they understand what it stands for.
In fact, only 26 percent know which products should be categorized as recyclable or trash.
Let’s go back to 1970,
the year the very first Earth Day was celebrated.
Gary Anderson, an engineering student at the University of Southern California,
designed this icon for a contest
which aimed to encourage people to recycle paper.
The 23-year-old had come up with the design during a field trip to a newspaper office.
"This is how paper was fed over rollers as it was printed," says Anderson.
Anderson didn’t trademark his original design,
which is probably why we have seen so many variables of it since its conception.
Today, Unicode officially recognizes six versions of the symbol,
each of which stands for different levels of recycling:
There’s the universal recycling symbol
the recycling symbol for generic materials
the black universal recycling symbol
the recycled paper symbol which indicates the product contains recycled paper
the partially-recycled paper symbol which indicates the product contains partially recycled paper
and the permanent paper sign.
Have you ever noticed the numbers inside the recycling triangle?
Those are called resin identification codes, or RICs.
But what do these numbers stand for?
Time for an Express Explore Explanation.
Start the clock.
Most people spot a recycling logo on their products
and incorrectly assume they all fall into the same category of recycling.
EHHH. WRONG.
In order to properly recycle you need to know
what each number contained within the logo stands for:
"1" signifies that the product is made out of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
such as soft drink bottles
"2" signifies high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
such as the plastics in milk jugs
"3" signifies polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
such as pipes, toys, plastic food wrapping
"4" signifies low-density polyethylene (LDPE)
that's in plastic bags, six-pack rings and tubing
"5" signifies polypropylene (PP)
such as auto parts, industrial fibres and food containers
"6" signifies polystyrene (PS)
such as plastic utensils, Styrofoam and cafeteria trays
"7" signifies other plastics
such as acrylic, nylon, polycarbonate and polylactic acid (PLA)
Hard plastics have the most consistent and biggest recycling markets
since they release less toxins when being processed.
So, in general, plastic waste identified with RICs “1” and “2” are recyclable;
“3” and “5” are sometimes recyclable;
“4”, “6” and “7” are usually not recyclable.
So, with the objective of reducing the impact of plastic waste on the environment,
biodegradable plastics were invented,
but how degradable are these plastics in reality?
Myth number two:
Biodegradable plastics degrade easily.
Products with a biodegradable label are meant to create the least impact on earth after their disposal.
According to the Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims by the Federal Trade Commission,
they should be able to break down within a short period of time
— usually within a year.
Most biodegradable plastics are made up of petrochemicals that decay faster
under the exposure of light, oxygen, water and heat,
and release less toxins than normal plastic waste.
Sounds good right?
The problem is that biodegradable plastics are usually disposed with other non-recyclable waste in landfills,
where they are less likely to be exposed to the right conditions they need to break down.
In fact, if biodegradable plastics are not exposed to oxygen they can do more harm than good.
When deprived of oxygen,
these products may emit a greenhouse gas called methane into the atmosphere as they decompose.
Methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide
and it traps heat more effectively.
But what if you just throw it into the ocean?
Well, cold water slows down the degradation process.
That means that biodegradable plastics could be hanging around ocean waters
for longer than they should,
making them a threat to marine life.
But not all is woe!
Greenhouse gases can be used for good,
and although only a few exist,
there are programs put in place to make it happen.
One of such programs is the Landfill Methane Outreach Program,
introduced and carried out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Through a complex purification process,
the Landfill Gas Energy Project converts landfill gas into fuel that can be used to generate electricity,
as well as power devices like boilers and dryers.
Not only that, but another advanced treatment of landfill gas can convert it to fuel for vehicles.
Here’s how it works:
Before landfill gas is released into the environment,
special piping collects the gas and transfers it to a flare system.
Then, toxic gases like siloxane and sulfur are removed.
Finally, the landfill gas is compressed and ready to go.
Another project taking on the reuse of greenhouse gases is a company called Mango Materials.
They also collect methane from landfills and convert it into Polyhydroxyalkanoates,
commonly known as PHAs,
a family of biodegradable plastics.
In fact, the types of bag or container doesn’t really matter when you reuse it as many times as possible.
But unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that we humans are doing the best at re-using.
A report by the MAVA Foundation assumes that oceans are expected to contain more plastics than fish by 2050.
It doesn’t seem that far away from now if we don’t change our attitude towards the environment.
Myth number three:
Paper straws don’t negatively impact the environment.
Whenever we get a drink,
whether that’s at 711 or a restaurant,
we’ll inevitably encounter pesky plastic straws.
They’re everywhere.
According to data from the UK government,
the country discards a total of 8.5 billion plastic straws each year.
In order to reduce the manufacturing and usage of this non recyclable item,
paper and bamboo straws have been rolled out with the hope of slowly replacing them.
But recyclable straws still need some working on.
Let’s take McDonald’s in the UK as an example.
In 2018, the fast food giant replaced its plastic straws
with straws made of recyclable materials in 1,361 McDonald's restaurants
in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
There was just one problem though:
They can’t actually be recycled.
Now, in August 2019, McDonald’s came out and admitted that
although the straws themselves were made of recyclable materials,
they were too thick to be processed by their partner recycling plants.
See, paper straws require more energy and money to be produced.
At the same time, more greenhouse gases are released in their manufacturing process.
Also, most of the recycling factories do not accept food-contaminated paper products,
so if a paper straw has food residue in it,
it may not be accepted for recycling.
Since the company announced this,
thousands have signed petitions to bring back the plastic straw,
and many environmental activists have accused McDonald’s of “green washing” by
focusing on promoting false “eco-friendly” plastic alternatives
instead of tackling one of the biggest contributors of global warming:
meat consumption.
So what can we do as consumers?
Simple, you can buy a reusable stainless steel,
bamboo or glass straw
or just completely say goodbye to straws!
The oldest straw was found in a Sumerian tomb dating back to 3,000 BCE.
Early straws are thought to have been used for drinking beer
to prevent swallowing solid byproducts of fermentation.
But unlike today, straws weren’t a tool for commoners,
in fact they were quite an elegant item.
The 3,000 year old straw was a long gold tube inlaid with blue stone lapis lazuli.
People would sit around a huge pot of alcohol and dip their gold straws into the pot to sip on some spirits.
In the 1800s, people used ryegrass straws
because they were cheap to produce and soft,
however, they would turn to pulp when left too long inside a liquid.
The modern drinking straw made its appearance in the late 1800s,
when a man named Marvin C. Stone had enough of drinking through a mushy straw.
What he did was wrap a piece of paper around a pencil,
apply glue to the sides, slide out the pencil and coat the resulting tube with wax
so it wouldn’t dissolve and, voila!
There you have it, the first modern straw was made.
Hopefully Mother Earth is tough enough for the next generation.
But we need to learn how to use the resources we have now
in a way that doesn't continue to harm the environment,
for our sake and the sake of all life on Earth.
Do you think you’re on the right path?
Thanks for watching Explore Mode,
if you liked this video hit the thumbs up button.
If you want to explore even more with us,
check out the video we made on Ghost Gear and its negative impact to the ocean.
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See you next week, and in the meantime,
keep your explore mode on.