'Plastic recycling is a myth': what happens to your rubbish?
The only way to make recycling work is to make the waste worth something. It works well with beer and wine, with a deposit, 95%+ of beer&#x2F;wine waste gets recycled. If tossed, the deposit is enough to induce street people to return the old container for the deposit.
Going a step further, I propose all items sold have a dual bar code. One part is the point of sale (POS) universal product code (UPC). I propose to add a serial number AND a buyer number to this.
The serial number is for that piese of waste, the buyer number is whoever bought it. Buyer number is permanent, tied to you and your address. The tie between the purchase and the items number and the waste item will prevent counterfeit garbage being made to get the deposit. The potential deposit thief will not know what was bought and for how much or where, sso faked ecycle returns will fail. Now a can or bottle is onlt worth 5 o 10 cents and does not drive countefeiting which 50 cents or $1 would - unless the check sum of who&#x2F;what&#x2F;where is consistent with the item returned.
Deposits need to be substantial, like 50 cents or $1 per item so the genuine buyer pays that when he buys it. The fee is large enough to motivate a high rate of return - which 50 cents or $1 will do. Recycling trucks will have bar code readers and each item must be scanned and the deposit credited to the buyer. The bar code will also allow the truck to divert each item into a category box where the items are all alike for best recycling practice. This will slow the process, but the process will be highly automated znc can be done while the truck moves, or back at a depot to keep truck mobility high.
This means ALL packaging. All plastic bags are outlawed, only paper allowed. paper bags reinforced with jute or hemp (jute&#x2F;hemp are fibrous plant used for rope or reinforcing bags because it biodegrades). All packaging will, in time, be fully identifiable as well as biodegradeable. With all plastic being capable of a detailed machine sort and segregation the waste plastic will all be of one type for bext ability to recycle.
If someone tosses waste on the ground, the bar codes will identify who tossed it and he can either be fined or lose part of the recycle fee. Street people will be able to recycle items found on the street and will earn that fee. At 50 cents or $1 that fee will motivate street people strongly - might even cause fights?? Once an items is scanned as recycled, the cash goes to the buyer&#x2F;reycler&#x27;s account or the street persons one. Once this happens, the name is wiped from the system, but his cash remains as his deposit returned tax free, as it was his money in the first place. The street person also gets the $$ tax free<p>This sound like 1984, well, it is - in a way. We are heading down a globally unsustainable path with our trash. We either die of it, or we defeat it. Only people who die of it are 1984 casualties - those that recycle and get the $$ are not recorded, not taxed and are helping the world as we all must see the rising sea of trash needs to be dealt with rationally.