Just here to say...one of my least favorite arguments about recycling is "It shouldn't be our responsibility." I actually really like recycling as a shared pro-social activity that involves the consumer, the producer, the waste management system, and the recycling company.

If we can sort at home, that lowers the cost of recycled feedstocks which makes the more competitive. That's great! That's a social activity. The problem is that recycled plastic feedstocks simply can't compete. This is also largely true of glass (where the majority of the dollar cost and environmental cost is actually the same...re-melting the glass...glass should be re-used, not recycled.)

But recycled feedstocks for steel and aluminum are actually significantly cheaper! But separating them out makes them moreso, which decreases mining and energy use!

Paper products are in the middle where they can be cheaper but only for certain uses because you can't make, like, bright white printer paper from old carboard.

The problem is that people have a hard time /feeling/ that metals are different from plastics which are different from glass which is different from paper. The simple story is "oh no, the landfill might fill up" which is not the actual problem that we're trying to solve here which makes it all very confusing to people.

Should've been called "Why recycling plastic is fracking hard"

Title unclear, I will now commence using my stove to melt plastic.

what got me to click is not the title, but "Hank Green" and "44 seconds ago"

"You can't Use Arterial plaques, testicles, and Antarctica" in the same sentence. "Hold my death ray" -Hank Green

I thought my app was stuck on 2.0x speed again, but it's just Hank getting the information out

"...other type of plastics that are hard to separate from the PP..."
Me &Hank together: "the poopoo"

oh so when a company points a death laser at the earth it's "innovation" and "scientific advancement" but when I do it I am the villain of a saturday morning scifi-themed cartoon for kids

I LOOOOOVE that enzymatic plastic degradation got mentioned! Just spent the morning helping my mom in the college lab she teaches, where she is conducting research with her students on how to get PETase (and METase) into algae!! Plastic-eating algae!! My thumb is still sore from opening all the little test tubes 😁

Pointing a fusion reactor lasers at the earth next to a volcano sounds like the villains plan from a 1960s B-movie

I love this (new?) "Hank learns about a thing then interviews someone knowledgeable about it" style of video 😂

The reason new plastic is so cheap is because we don't include the external costs to the environment into the price.

Trees are just solar panels with the wood as the battery

@0:13 hah diluting your statistical analysis. I click Hank Green videos regardless of title

12:04 when Hank could not resist saying "poo-poo" off-camera. I have been *sent*.

I like “there’s an actual reason you can’t recycle” as a title because so much of my frustration is around not being able to meaningfully do so

Hi Hank! I recently learned from my parents that their church set up plastic collection for the community. Once they've collected a goal amount of plastics, all that matetial will get recycled for a nearby park to get a new bench made from the collected plastics! The community is into it, they really like the idea of Knowing Where Those Plastic Items Went. Everyone knows and feels kinda icky about plastic waste, but given an oppertunity to turn that waste into a community good? Non church members were showing up with bags of old shopping bags piled high in their car, eager to have all that waste go somewhere that isn'f Bury It And Ignore It Forever.

When there's a problem, people need a place to grab on or they'll feel like time spent discussing it is dishonest. If it WAS a problem, wouldn't you have an actionable solution? So when someone presents without one, it results in fustration that makes people dislike the topic In General, irreguardless of their position on said topic.

Projects like recycled park instillations and playground equipment is a tangible good that people can SEE and TOUCH and say "I was part of that."

When someone shies from a conversation because there's not a solution yet, you can often reengage them by finding a related activity that lets them get physically up to their elbows in the topic. I was 8 when a field trip to a landfill made me aware of Where Trash Goes, and after that point I considered waste. I didn't want things to be buried in the ground where they're no use to anyone; I want to use what I need and give back what I don't. That feels In Balance to me, and when I articulate that my peers readily agree. They just need somewhere to grab on.

0:48 Chemical plants during the day: disgusting!
At night: so pretty!
It proves the importance of good lighting

0:33 : As a gamer who loves Satisfactory, I find them oddly beautiful too. In a complex industrial building kind of way.

This video did something wild to my perception of the plastics problem. As soon as the reason was no longer "because evil" it was like a wall of resignation melted away and suddenly, finding a solution seemed possible again. Funny how that works, and a fascinating topic.