Recycling Scam

[Mike Br.]

I beleive, the vast majority of Canadians care about our environment. Also, we've been told that our recycling program is something really great for the environment, one of the best things since sliced bread. So, we proudly endorsed it, and have been paying into it dearly. But, it wasn't until recently that we found out what was really going on.

Here is how it SHOULD work:

1) We throw plastics and other recyclables into our blue bins.
2) They get collected and taken to a sorting facility where recyclables are separated by type.
3) Instead of recycling plastics here, we ship them overseas, and pay other countries (mostly Asian) some money to recycle them, and they further sell it on the market, for additional profit.

It should be a win-win! But, here is what is really happening:

1) We throw just about everything in our blue bins, that even remotely looks recyclable, including soiled diapers and used feminine products.
2) They get collected and just thrown into shipping containers, with next to none sorting. Plastics, garbage, everything.
3) We ship them overseas, and pay other countries to recycle them, but they just dump the stuff into rivers, because there is no, or very limitted market for it. And quite frankly, no one can blame them for not handling the "stuff".

There have been a lot of talks about plastics polluting our oceans. But did you know, 90% of this pollution comes from 10 rivers, 8 of them being in Asia, and 2 in Africa? That's our stuff, folks! And our governments knew it. You may want to think about Philipine's president Duerte all you want, i.e. dictator, lunatic, ... but we must thank him for opening our eyes to this scam. He is shipping 69 of these containers, loaded with our garbage, back to us. As we are speaking, they are onboard "Anna Maersk" containership, enroute to BC ports. You can track it here .. https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9260421

[spooker]

If I hear you correctly, you're saying that we need to take more personal responsibility for recycling our stuff?

I'm all for that ...

[Mike Br.]

If I hear you correctly, you're saying that we need to take more personal responsibility for recycling our stuff?

I'm all for that ...

What I'm saying, the entire process is one big deception. That puts one giant questionmark on the validity of the recycling program, as a concept.

[Queen K]

We need to follow the Swedish example, they ran out of trash using it to generate electricity.

[spooker]

What I'm saying, the entire process is one big deception. That puts one giant questionmark on the validity of the recycling program, as a concept.

Who's being deceived? You know about the process, your description of what happens with it is not a surprise to me, I don't see anyone here being surprised by your "revelation" ... that's not deception that's just us (regular people) not caring enough to make the changes we can as individuals ... again, the easiest thing to do is take responsibility :)

We need to follow the Swedish example, they ran out of trash using it to generate electricity.

I've liked that idea too but for the pollution offset ... the reduction of methane is good but knowing what the trade-off is makes me wary ...

[Mike Br.]

We need to follow the Swedish example, they ran out of trash using it to generate electricity.

I am not sure about other countries, but I think, here in Canada we should just bury it, together with the rest of garbage. There is no shortage of land in this country. In my mind, the only things worth recycling are metals, because it takes a lot of energy and money to produce them. That's why you'll never see thieves stealing plastics, or paper. They steal metals, because they are worth something. Not even paper is worth recycling. Just bury it. It's bio-degradable, and trees are renewable.

[Queen K]

Spooker, The present trade off is vast rafts of plastic islands in the oceans and whales dead on the shorelines, full of plastics, and they are starving to death for lack of food, being killed off by all the ocean pollution and overfishing.

[Queen K]

We need to follow the Swedish example, they ran out of trash using it to generate electricity.

I am not sure about other countries, but I think, here in Canada we should just bury it, together with the rest of garbage. There is no shortage of land in this country. In my mind, the only things worth recycling are metals, because it takes a lot of energy and money to produce them. That's why you'll never see thieves stealing plastics, or paper. They steal metals, because they are worth something. Not even paper is worth recycling. Just bury it. It's bio-degradable, and trees are renewable.

I believe it is worth recycling, lots of products don't need pristine fresh paper or cardboard.

Also, wet paper down, mix with organics and turn it into compost/ground cover/mulch/dirt.

[rustled]

...

We need to follow the Swedish example, they ran out of trash using it to generate electricity.

I've liked that idea too but for the pollution offset ... the reduction of methane is good but knowing what the trade-off is makes me wary ...

It's sensible to be concerned about the unintended consequences. No need to reinvent the wheel though.

Lots of interesting information about what other jurisdictions are doing in this thread, thanks to nepal:
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=81831

[my5cents]

…………………….

It should be a win-win! But, here is what is really happening:

1) We throw just about everything in our blue bins, that even remotely looks recyclable, including soiled diapers and used feminine products.
2) They get collected and just thrown into shipping containers, with next to none sorting. Plastics, garbage, everything.
3) We ship them overseas, and pay other countries to recycle them, but they just dump the stuff into rivers, because there is no, or very limitted market for it. And quite frankly, no one can blame them for not handling the "stuff".

There have been a lot of talks about plastics polluting our oceans. But did you know, 90% of this pollution comes from 10 rivers, 8 of them being in Asia, and 2 in Africa? That's our stuff, folks! And our governments knew it. You may want to think about Philipine's president Duerte all you want, i.e. dictator, lunatic, ... but we must thank him for opening our eyes to this scam. He is shipping 69 of these containers, loaded with our garbage, back to us. As we are speaking, they are onboard "Anna Maersk" containership, enroute to BC ports. You can track it here .. https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9260421

Thank you for the link showing the travel of the vessel (paid for by the Federal Govt.) returning the private companies shipment of "recycling" back from the Philippines.

Could you post a link to the information you've provided that :

- We throw just about everything in our blue bins
- We ship them over seas and they are just dumped into rivers

Since you've provided absolutely no indication of percentages of our recycling that is corrupted with, as you describe as, "that even remotely looks recyclable, including soiled diapers and used feminine products" I have to assume just about every recycle bin is corrupted with these items and all our recycling is shipped overseas. Speaking for myself, I have no source of soiled diapers (not yet), or used feminine products.

I anxiously await those links.

[Mike Br.]

Who's being deceived?

Me, for one. And I can tell you, whoever I talked to, knew nothing about what's really going on, untill this "garbage war" with Philippines broke out. I have been recycling my stuff almost religiously, thinking that I was doing something good for the environment. It turns out, I have been paying into this program, for our governments to ship recyclables half way around the world, just to be dumped into rivers, and ending up in our oceans. And they knew it, without doing anything about it. That in my mind is a big deception.

[my5cents]

Me, for one. And I can tell you, whoever I talked to, knew nothing about what's really going on, untill this "garbage war" with Philippines broke out. I have been recycling my stuff almost religiously, thinking that I was doing something good for the environment. It turns out, I have been paying into this program, for our governments to ship recyclables half way around the world, just to be dumped into rivers, and ending up in our oceans. And they knew it, without doing anything about it. That in my mind is a big deception.

Ah, so this discussion is based on "whoever (you) talked to", who, "knew nothing about what's really going on", but when that person heard about the "garbage war" with (the) Philippines, now says our recycling is being shipped over seas, only to be dumped in rivers and sent out to sea.

Not really the evidence I would accept to get real bent out of shape on. Could be true, but when "whoever" tells me something without any background or source I tend to take it with a grain of salt, a big grain.

[rustled]

Who's being deceived?

Me, for one. And I can tell you, whoever I talked to, knew nothing about what's really going on, untill this "garbage war" with Philippines broke out. I have been recycling my stuff almost religiously, thinking that I was doing something good for the environment. It turns out, I have been paying into this program, for our governments to ship recyclables half way around the world, just to be dumped into rivers, and ending up in our oceans. And they knew it, without doing anything about it. That in my mind is a big deception.

You're not the only one. I doubt most people who tried their best to put only the correct waste products into their blue bins realized that for some years now, this waste has not been properly sorted.

Up until relatively recently, I doubt most of them were aware how much of it was being shipped overseas.

And I doubt most of them knew how little oversight there has been.

Some of the companies we have paid to manage recyclables have not behaved responsibly, and have not been held to account.

As a result, it seems to us our recycling program has done more harm than good. And we suspect some of the garbage in the ocean came from us.

[Mike Br.]

Could you post a link to the information you've provided that :

- We throw just about everything in our blue bins
- We ship them over seas and they are just dumped into rivers

Since you've provided absolutely no indication of percentages of our recycling that is corrupted with, as you describe as, "that even remotely looks recyclable, including soiled diapers and used feminine products" I have to assume just about every recycle bin is corrupted with these items and all our recycling is shipped overseas. Speaking for myself, I have no source of soiled diapers (not yet), or used feminine products.

I anxiously await those links.

It's been all over the news. I personally watched a TV documentary on this, showing the contents of the containers, as well as where most of it ends up. I'll try to find it online and post a link here.

[Ken7]

It all looks great until you know the rest of the story right.

Very true, in Calgary they take the recycled goods from the plant, to a landfill location. The truck drivers were not permitted to carry cell phones, or cameras and if caught they were immediately dismissed.

Truth is if we only knew how much is actually recycled you would be sickened and just throw it in the garbage. We need to incinerate it burn it at high temperatures and utilize the heat energy to produce electrical energy as other countries do.