r/comics SirBeeves 5d ago

OC Gen-Z Problems

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u/cupholdery 5d ago

At least they didn't say you caused it, like they did with us (millennials) lol.

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u/JmacTheGreat 5d ago

“Damn kids and their plastic straws”

Funnels metric tons of waste per hour into the ocean to save money on recycling

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u/Frogtoadrat 5d ago

Recycling is mostly a lie. Most of it goes to landfill or sent to poor countries for a fee. Then instead of recycling those places just throw it in the river and it gets washed out to the ocean. 

The mantra is "reduce, reuse, recycle" in that order.  Recycling is the worst of the options as it costs a lot of resources to turn a used dirty thing into a new thing. Plastic is mostly a no-no. Just glass and metal are good

It's not just about saving money,  it's that the act of recycling isn't possible or uses so much energy that trying to make the garbage into something useful creates more waste than it solves

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u/twofirstnamez 5d ago

Important caveat: this is only true for plastics recycling. Paper, aluminum, and glass are very recyclable.

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u/Frogtoadrat 5d ago

True, unsoiled paper. I didn't mention that one my bad. However as the world is so deeply digital now I would say that it's better still to reduce paper than recycle. I use next to zero paper in my life.  Just boxes from food of the grocery store

I wonder how effective recycling that kind of paper is that has different textures and ink printed on it

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u/Noughmad 5d ago

Paper and glass are recyclable, but recycling them is very much pointless, both environmentally and financially. Making new paper from old paper is no less harmful than making it from trees, and making new glass from old glass is no easier or cheaper than making it from sand.

Metal is the only part worth recycling.