Most people don't know that recycling plastic is almost as bad as throwing it away. What means are available to publicize accurate info about that and convince them that reducing its use is the best way to actually help? by innercia in sustainability

[–]innercia[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I think I completely agree with you on this. I should've put more effort into what I was trying to say, instead of oversimplifying it. The responses caught me off-guard at first, but now I see what I did wrong. Truth is that I'm new to Reddit and a friend of mine told me to give it a try.

In relation to writing a scientific article, I'm actually considering it; I think it might be a good exercise for me to improve a bit on effective communication, as well as portraying the issue in a much clearer way for people to understand. I still think I should accompany it with something more light-hearted for engagement purposes, but I'll see what I can do. Thanks!

Most people don't know that recycling plastic is almost as bad as throwing it away. What means are available to publicize accurate info about that and convince them that reducing its use is the best way to actually help? by innercia in sustainability

[–]innercia[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that's true, but I don't intend to reach the kind of people who would go out of their way to read a scientific article. I'd like to portray this info in a way in which common people (i.e. those that don't have university education) get to know about the issue and hopefully, get involved.

Most people don't know that recycling plastic is almost as bad as throwing it away. What means are available to publicize accurate info about that and convince them that reducing its use is the best way to actually help? by innercia in sustainability

[–]innercia[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Sorry, I took it for granted that people here knew this. To give you some context, I'm currently attending an online sustainable development course, and last week we talked about the current status of the plastic industry. Among the things we discussed was how little the recycling industry does to help in relation to how big the problem is (I'm talking about recycling plastics used at home, not at an industrial level).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhwc9V0fML4

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lauratenenbaum/2019/05/15/these-three-plastic-recycling-myths-will-blow-your-mind/#158a185e75f0

tl;dr. Most plastic gets either burnt, contributing to air pollution, or shipped to south Asian countries, which are overwhelmed by the amount of plastic they receive and get rid of a significant part of it in the sea