I’m aware that I, the consumer, won’t change the world and that we need structural change.
Still, I’ve been wondering. I’ve come to learn that plastic recycling is largely a myth/scam, but what about glass and metal recycling? Also, what happens to the plastic coating on metal during recycling?
TIA
In general waste glass and metals can be recycled easily and effectively and in many cases it is energetically efficient to do so compared to making new glass or metals form natural resources. There are a couple of caveats to this though that might be important:
There is a lot of research into metal recycling going on right now though, so that might change soon. :) Just because the technology exists to recycle something does not mean that somebody is doing it unfortunately. Even if it is economical to recycle something – meaning the recycled material would cost less than the virgin material – it is still possible that it isnt done because the market is too niche. For instance borosilicate glass can be recycled and it would be very energy efficient to do so but the market would be too small for anybody to invest in it. I guess energy is still too cheap.
Plastic liners in general are not typically recycled, if there is no easy method to separate them from the base material. This applies to cans, paper cups, metal bottles, furniture and lots of other things. In most cases they still allow the base material to be recycled though. For instance in ferrous metal recycling (cans) the plastic liners might simple be burned away in the electric arc furnace.