Recycling Is Broken. Here’s How We Can Fix It. Recycling ist kaputt. Hier ist, wie wir es reparieren können. Recycling Is Broken. Here's How We Can Fix It. El reciclaje está roto. Así es como podemos arreglarlo. Il riciclo è rotto. Ecco come possiamo rimediare. 재활용이 망가졌습니다. 해결 방법은 다음과 같습니다. Recycling is kapot. Dit is hoe we het kunnen oplossen. A reciclagem está avariada. Eis como podemos resolvê-lo. Переработка отходов сломана. Вот как мы можем это исправить. Geri Dönüşüm Bozuldu. İşte Nasıl Düzeltebileceğimiz. 回收利用已经崩溃。我们该如何解决？ 回收被破壞。以下是我們如何解決這個問題。

We've all been there. You've just finished a delicious snack, empty container in hand,

and you have to make a decision: Does this belong in the trash can or recycling bin?

Throw it away, and it's doomed to sit in a landfill for the next 500 or so years. Si lo tiras, está condenado a permanecer en un vertedero durante los próximos 500 años.

Or throw it in the recycling bin, and it happily makes its way to a local recycling plant where O tírelo a la papelera de reciclaje y llegará a la planta de reciclaje local, donde se reciclará.

magic happens and it's repurposed into more happy containers that will make other people

happy one day.

You've saved the world from another piece of trash. Cue the sunshine, the rainbows, Has salvado al mundo de otra basura. Que empiece el sol, el arco iris, Je hebt de wereld gered van weer een stuk afval. Cue de zonneschijn, de regenbogen,

and the smiling bunnies. If everyone would just put more in the recycling bin instead

of the trash can, the world would be a better place.

Except that's not exactly true. By throwing this in the recycling bin, you've actually

created more trash. You've also made it harder to recycle the stuff that can be saved,

and basically demonstrated that recycling is broken. At least the way we do it today.

Luckily, we can fix it.

[OPEN]

Hey smart people, Joe here.

Why do we recycle? Because it's one of the best ways for you to have a direct impact

on the environment. It means taking fewer raw materials out of the earth, less energy

and pollution to make new stuff, and most of all, less trash.

It may seem like recycling is a product of modern environmental movements, but people

have been recycling for as long as they've been making stuff. Before the industrial revolution,

most goods and raw materials were hard to come by, so people recycled as much as they de meeste goederen en grondstoffen waren moeilijk verkrijgbaar, dus mensen recyclen zoveel als ze

could at home or at work, everything from scrap metal to old clothes. podría en casa o en el trabajo, desde chatarra hasta ropa vieja. kon thuis of op het werk, alles van schroot tot oude kleding.

But unlike the Olden Dayes, we need recycling today because we make so much stuff. The economic Pero a diferencia de antaño, hoy necesitamos reciclar porque fabricamos muchas cosas. La economía

boom after WWII created a tidal wave of quick and cheap goods. And suddenly it made more auge después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial creó una oleada de productos rápidos y baratos. Y de repente hizo más

economic sense to throw many old items away and just buy new ones. Unfortunately, if the

movie Wall-E taught us one thing, it's with a growing population and limited resources,

we can't continue that cycle forever.

The good news is we're recycling a bigger fraction of our waste every year. In 2017,

Americans recycled 35% of our waste, and EU countries recycled 46% of theirs.

Back in 1960, 94% of solid waste generated in the US ended up in landfills. But in 2017, In 1960 belandde 94% van het in de VS geproduceerde vaste afval op stortplaatsen. Maar anno 2017

it was just 52%. And EU countries do even better, only sending

a quarter of their solid waste to landfills today.

But even though we're recycling more, we're making so much waste these days that Americans

are still throwing away more total tons of waste than we used to. So what can we do?

The reason so many people recycle today is thanks to “single stream recycling”. It's La razón por la que tanta gente recicla hoy en día es gracias al "reciclaje de flujo único". Es De reden waarom zoveel mensen tegenwoordig recyclen, is dankzij "single stream recycling". Zijn

easy: You put everything in one bin and send it off for someone else to figure out. In fácil: lo pones todo en una papelera y lo envías para que otro lo resuelva. En

fact, around ⅔ of people say they wouldn't recycle at all if it wasn't so easy.

But in order for that to work, someone has to sort all this, into this. Then it goes Pero para que eso funcione, alguien tiene que ordenar todo esto, en esto. Entonces va

from a sorting facility, it's put together with other stuff of that kind, and is sold de una instalación de clasificación, se junta con otras cosas de ese tipo, y se vende

by the ton in a global market, often shipped overseas, to be reprocessed back into raw por toneladas en un mercado global, a menudo enviadas al extranjero, para ser reprocesadas de nuevo en materias primas.

materials, which are then sold to manufacturers who make new stuff out of it.

We're actually pretty good at recycling materials like aluminum or glass. They can

often be recycled back into the same stuff you started with. But many materials can really

only be recycled into lower value products. That's called “downcycling”. Paper and

plastic are the real troublemakers here, because pretty quickly you just can't downcycle plástico son los verdaderos problemáticos aquí, porque muy rápidamente usted simplemente no puede downcycle

a material any further. un material más.

It's really convenient to be able to get rid of all this stuff in one environmentally

friendly-colored bin, right? But single stream recycling has made things SO easy, if people

aren't a hundred percent sure if something can actually be recycled, they just throw

it in the bin anyway. It's called “aspirational recycling” or “wishcycling”. I'm definitely het in ieder geval in de prullenbak. Het wordt 'aspirationele recycling' of 'wishcycling' genoemd. ik ben zeker

guilty of doing this and I bet you are too.

And as a result, according to the National Waste and Recycling Association, about 25

percent of the stuff we try to recycle is so contaminated it just goes straight to the

landfill. That contamination comes in the form of things that can't be recycled, like

plastic bags, which just clog up the machines that sort this stuff. Yeah, you thought you bolsas de plástico, que sólo atascan las máquinas que clasifican estas cosas. Sí, pensaste que plastic zakken, die de machines die dit soort dingen sorteren gewoon verstoppen. Ja, je dacht dat je

were being nice and tidy by putting your recycling in a bag, but what you actually did was get que estabas siendo amable y ordenado al poner tu reciclaje en una bolsa, pero lo que en realidad hiciste fue conseguir waren aardig en netjes door je recycling in een zak te doen, maar wat je eigenlijk deed was krijgen

that whole bag thrown away. toda esa bolsa tirada.

Or diapers. People are actually trying to recycle diapers. Used ones. That is just wrong

on so many levels. a muchos niveles.

But a lot of the contamination comes from things that technically can be recycled, if

they weren't so dirty. And our food container is a perfect example here. Waste plastic like ze waren niet zo vies. En onze voedselcontainer is hier een perfect voorbeeld van. Plastic afval zoals

this gets ground up into tiny pieces and sold by the ton. But when I throw this in the recycling

bin covered in food residue (or with foil lid still on) it all gets ground up together.

That food and metal contamination can ruin the whole batch, because before this plastic

can be repurposed into something new, it has to be a certain purity, and in many cases

it's so expensive to clean and purify it that the recycling companies can't make het is zo duur om het schoon te maken en te zuiveren dat de recyclingbedrijven het niet kunnen maken

money on it, and it just ends up being thrown away. Greasy pizza boxes? Contaminated garbage. dinero en ello, y acaba tirado a la basura. ¿Cajas de pizza grasientas? Basura contaminada.

Paper drink cups? They've actually got a thin plastic or wax lining that most recyclers ¿Vasos de papel? En realidad tienen un fino revestimiento de plástico o cera que la mayoría de los recicladores

can't separate out, so they get thrown away most of the time too. Which really makes you

think…

Where was I? Oh yeah. Modern recycling became so widespread because countries like China

were there to buy our reusable trash. But trying to recycle contaminated paper and plastic

was creating a whole new environmental problem in these countries, and in 2018 China said

“nope!” and they banned their recyclers from buying our contaminated plastic and paper.

And other countries like Malaysia have since followed their lead. Otros países, como Malasia, han seguido su ejemplo.

China was the biggest buyer of the world's reusable trash, so this has completely messed

up the economics of recycling across Europe and the US. Now more stuff is going from recycling

centers straight into landfills and some cities have even stopped recycling altogether.

The very thing that makes single stream recycling so successful–how easy it is for us–has Juist datgene dat single-stream recycling zo succesvol maakt – hoe gemakkelijk is het voor ons – heeft

become its Achilles heel, because we've made our recycling so dirty that it just became

more trash.

So how do we fix it? Well, it's on us. The most important thing we can do is only recycle То як нам це виправити? Ну, це залежить від нас. Найважливіше, що ми можемо зробити - це переробити

what can actually be recycled.

Plastic is pretty confusing stuff. Not only because it used to be oil, but now it's

solid, and you can carry milk in it… (aside: I'll figure that out someday) but also because

there's more than one type of plastic. Luckily, each type is labeled with a “resin identification er is meer dan één soort plastic. Gelukkig is elk type gelabeld met een "harsidentificatie"

code” that helps you figure out what to do with it.

Numbers 1, 2 and 5 have a pretty good market in the U.S. for recycling. Water and soda

bottles, milk jugs, laundry detergent, yogurt cups and stuff like that are mostly made of flessen, melkkannen, wasmiddel, yoghurtbekers en dat soort dingen zijn meestal gemaakt van

these plastics. But they're only recyclable if they're clean! You don't need to wash

it with the dishes, just rinse out any food, and remove any labels or foil and these are

good to go

Numbers 4, 6 and 7 are things like squeezable bottles, plastic bags, and many of the disposable

plates and cups and takeout containers you get. These items are typically sent to a landfill borden en kopjes en afhaalcontainers die je krijgt. Deze items worden meestal naar een stortplaats gestuurd

and not recycled at all.

Number 3 is plastic like PVC pipes, and this is just not recycled. I don't know why you'd

have a bunch of pipes around unless you're a plumber, but just don't put any PVC in

your recycling!

Glass and aluminum? Give ‘em a rinse and these are pretty much good to go. But try

not to break your glass if you can help it. no rompas el vaso si puedes evitarlo.

As for paper? Used napkins or greasy cardboard like pizza boxes usually can't be recycled.

But they can be composted, if that's available where you live. Paper cups and to-go containers Maar ze kunnen worden gecomposteerd, als dat beschikbaar is waar je woont. Papieren bekers en meeneembakjes

with those plastic linings? More and more places are starting to recycle these using

new technology, but before you put them in the bin, check to see what the guidelines

are where you live.

In fact, the best thing you can do in general is to learn what can be recycled where YOU

live. There's no perfect set of rules I can give you, because the rules are different

everywhere. So go to the website of your local recycler, or even call them on the phone if

talking to actual humans is your thing, and find out. You can also look for special recycling hablar con personas reales es lo tuyo, e infórmate. También puedes buscar reciclaje especial

drop-off locations for odd items like batteries or styrofoam. drop-off locaties voor vreemde items zoals batterijen of piepschuim.

And if you're ever in doubt if something can be recycled, don't put it in the recycling

bin. I know it feels weird, but sometimes you really are better off just throwing it papelera. Sé que es raro, pero a veces es mejor tirarlo...

away than contaminating a whole truck-worth of recycling with six months worth of plastic weg dan het vervuilen van een hele vrachtwagen aan recycling met zes maanden aan plastic

bags you have stashed under the kitchen sink. I know that's where you're hiding them. bolsas que tienes escondidas bajo el fregadero de la cocina. Sé que es ahí donde las escondes. tassen die je onder de gootsteen hebt verstopt. Ik weet dat je ze daar verbergt.

Most of us have a constant stream of packaged goods coming into our lives, designed to be

used one time, and thrown away. Perhaps the best thing you can do is know what you can

recycle before you buy stuff, and don't buy stuff that you can't recycle.

The recycling symbol is one of the most recognizable logos ever created. It was designed in 1970

to honor the very first Earth Day. The three arrows in this environmental Möbius strip para celebrar el primer Día de la Tierra. Las tres flechas de esta tira de Möbius medioambiental ter ere van de allereerste Dag van de Aarde. De drie pijlen in deze milieuvriendelijke Möbius-strip

are now taken to represent three words: Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle.

Today, we tend to focus mostly on the third one: Recycle. But since that first Earth Day,

recycling was always intended to be just one part of this three-step process. To truly

get rid of waste, and to keep our environment as clean as we can, recycling just isn't

enough on its own.

We also have to reduce the amount of waste we create in the first place, by either buying

items with less packaging, or asking manufacturers to consider waste when they design their packages

and products.

And we should reuse whatever we can too. [beat] Well, maybe not… whatever we can.

Recycling alone can't solve our waste problem. And I want to put something into perspective

to prove that to you. Since plastic was invented, 8.3 billion metric tons of new plastics have om dat aan u te bewijzen. Sinds de uitvinding van plastic is er 8,3 miljard ton aan nieuwe plastics

been produced. And 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste has been generated. Only

9% of that has been recycled, ever. While 79% of it has piled up in landfills or the

environment. According to researchers, 4 to 12 million

metric tons of plastic waste entered oceans in 2010 alone. And by 2050, there will be

12 billion metric tons of plastic in landfills. That amount is 35,000 times as massive as

the Empire State Building.

And there's no recycling system or technology imaginable that can get us out from under

all that weight. But we can choose to stop burying ourselves.

Stay curious.