Recycling won't solve our plastic problems | All Hail The Planet

Plastics are the lifeblood of a modern culture of speed, convenience and disposability - but we rarely stop to ask: Where does it all come from?

What a lot of people don't realise is that 98 percent of the inputs of plastics are fossil fuels. Extracting these fossil fuels are just the start of a long chain of toxic processes involved in the lifecycle of plastic.

In the fourth episode of All Hail The Planet - a series delving into the social, economic and political forces undermining meaningful global action on climate change - Ali Rae speaks with co-executive director of Greenpeace USA, Annie Leonard; "Cancer Alley" campaigner, Sharon Lavigne; and environmental engineer; Yuyun Ismawati.


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[naturegirl]

All hail the planet series truly are worth commendable. Every episode of it is full of information from multidimensional aspects. Great. 👍

[SkarGig]

It kills me that millionaires here on youtube jave 50 milllion views for things like "filling a mansion with packaging peanuts!" But docs that matter like these will sit under 100k views for months or permanently. What even is this world?

[petermonaghan]

I actually thought more adult people wld know roughly what plastic is made of I really didn’t think it was a really hard question, shocking

[vaughan]

In AUSTRALIA. I live in a Van but I have a permaculture garden on a part of a property. I collect washed up seaweed from the beach for mulch. Every time I do that, I have to bring a few, ironically, used plastic bags to collect as much plastic as I see. My problem is that some of the clear plastic is invisible. If all of it was coloured, I wouldn't miss any of it. I don't know if the colour additives have worse chemicals or not but it does make them stand out from everything else. I hate doing it but I feel good about removing it from the waters edge. Imagine how much is in the ocean!

[ThatMashbury]

As long as governments continue to allow the unabated production of plastics nothing will change.

[manuelpopp]

Aluminum is not entirely recyclable. Only fresh aluminum has the properties required to produce beverage cans etc. Recycled aluminum has less favorable properties. So, beverage cans have also to be avoided. In general, we must scale down consumption.

[Geo-qs]

I studied global warming in 1971. Since then, I have been working with an alternative lifestyle design to move away from fossile fuels. My work, of course, fell on deaf ears. Now, denial is popular. I suppose in the 2040s, the children will get it and wonder what we were thinking? The alternative lifestyle is easy, comfortable, and more fun, but it's not the lifestyle people were indoctrinated to believe as the American Dream.

[nonyadamnbusiness]

What's really aggravating about this problem is that there was nothing wrong with cellophane and paper. I have to use a knife or scissors to get into anything. I'd rather not have the packaging.

[Mr.Patrick_Hung]

The problem with incineration is not that it is polluting, but that it is usually done in a sloppy fashion that is highly dangerously polluting. If plastic is incinerated with modern technology, it can be relatively harmless. The trouble is that is not how things are done. We are not talking about the latest tech, but 19th century technology that is just not being used.

[sifrk]

How do these videos not have more views?

[vthilton]

Save Our Planet - Sharing, Justice and Peace for All

[Onward]

As a trillionaire that owns 1/2 the world, all I can say is you weren’t supposed to figure this out.

[warrenwood]

I think what you doing here is so needed.
Hopefully it slowly gets us all in the wealthy countries thinking about where this will lead us and to the conversations about shrinking our energy use along with our GDP ( because the link there is in lock step).A conversation about much simpler lives, much much simpler lives . And about how re-direct that energy and GDP to those countries who desperately need it .Those not responsible for this mess and never have or will live the grossly wasteful highlife we, have, lived( past tense).
But thanks for trying to begin this journey through information.

[mikeskylark]

My god! What are we doing?! Just STOP with consumerism and STOP making new people! This planet is SICK because of us, modern humans!

[YKKY]

Our household is low waste household, we strive so much to only buy what we need and reserve what we want for birthdays and Christmas yet we are still struggling to remove plastic from our shopping. Even a head of organic broccoli is wrapped in plastic! This year we are going to try to grow our own fruit and veggies yet I can see that this won't be the main contributor to our plastic waste. So today, I decided we will do a trash reverse audit - we are going to write down in a table prepared for this, what the waste we just threw away came from and then weekly sit down and see what we can buy elsewhere or omit fully to reduce the waste. But if even a blasting broccoli comes wrapped in single use plastic wrap I see it as an uphill battle 😔

[RandallSlick]

Great series. Very informative. Thanks.

[JamestheChrist]

Your politicians have a few priorities: money, power, pride, influence, and job preservation. Therefore, they will always side with big corporations and whatever other social position they need to take to keep their job. If it's the morally right thing to do but will cost them their job, they won't do it.

Recycling won't fix the issue with plastics. We have to drastically get away from plastics, especially single use plastics.

[sebastianwrites]

Some of the images of waste in poorer countries are appalling... the child walking across looks like a river so clogged with waste he can walk across it.

[FHRider-om]

Working in a recycling depot can wreck your lungs, its serious how much the dust and vapour can affect you. But the jobs are needed, the solution is to use less plastic, and be strict on what happens at recycling plants, including staff welfare, and where the waste bales are sent to. I worked at a waste centre in the uk, theyd shut us inside a warehouse of mixed trash, because commercial neighbours complained about the smell. It was torture, but the cameradarie was good, especially during covid.

[madhuroy]

Less people, less petrol needs, less drilling, less plastic usage. Less development, less motor vehicles less pollution, less food need, less deforestation, less need.