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2018 Statistic of the Year: 90.5 Percent of Plastic Waste Has Never Been Recycled (bbc.com) 162

Posted by BeauHD from the cream-of-the-crop dept.
Two of 2018's best statistics from the Royal Statistical Society are about the environment. "The winning international statistic of the year was 90.5% -- the proportion of plastic waste that has never been recycled," reports the BBC. "And in the UK category, the top stat was 27.8% -- the highest percentage of all electricity which was generated by solar power." From the report: A panel of judges picked the two winners, along with several highly commended statistics, from more than 200 nominations. Entries for 2018 were submitted earlier this year. Judges on the panel included Dame Jil Matheson, former national statistician -- the top adviser to the government on official statistics, as well as RSS president Sir David Spiegelhalter, BBC home editor Mark Easton and the Guardian's U.S. data editor Mona Chalabi.

The environment and plastic waste has repeatedly made headlines in 2018, and "single-use" -- referring to plastic waste -- was named the word of the year. Other highly commended statistics include:

$1.3 billion: the amount lost from the value of Snapchat within a day after Kylie Jenner tweeted: "Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore?"
85.9%: the proportion of British trains that ran on time -- the lowest for more than a decade
40%: the percentage of Russian men who do not live to the age of 65
64,946: the number of measles cases in Europe from November 2017 to October 2018
82%: the percentage of all British retail shopping that is still in-store rather than online
16.7%: the percentage reduction of the number of Jaffa Cakes in the McVities' Christmas tube
6.4%: the percentage of female executive directors within FTSE 250 companies
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2018 Statistic of the Year: 90.5 Percent of Plastic Waste Has Never Been Recycled More

2018 Statistic of the Year: 90.5 Percent of Plastic Waste Has Never Been Recycled

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  • Popcorn time (Score:5, Funny)

    by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @06:13AM (#57829088) Homepage Journal

    Environmental protection, public transport, women... I'm sure this will be a quiet thread, nothing controversial there.

    • Obvious trollbait is obvious.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Obvious trollbait is obvious.

        Yes, the article is trollbait.

        Nice to know the BBC is continuing the divisive, intersectional, fundamentally racist "progressive" PC tradition, "Asteroid will destroy Earth, women and minorities most impacted!" stories.

    • Environmental protection, public transport, women... I'm sure this will be a quiet thread, nothing controversial there.

      Did you miss the part about the reduction in Jaffa Cakes?

      HARRRUMPH!

      • Did you miss the part about the reduction in Jaffa Cakes?

        HARRRUMPH!

        Reducing the number of Jaffa Cakes in a box should be illegal!
        - unless of course you are reducing the number by taking them out of the box to eat them.

        Forget the NHS- I want a National Jaffa Cake system, "free" Jaffas for all!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Nothing compared to those ridiculous Toblerone though.

      • >Did you miss the part about the reduction in Jaffa Cakes?

        I read that line, and thought - I'm sure those words have meaning to someone, somewhere.

    • Re:Popcorn time (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @09:16AM (#57829518)

      Well it is too bad most of the discussion on these topics goes into the Stupid Oversimplification category and/or just being Cruel and Heartless, and if the topic is really hard to swallow, then we go into conspiracy theory how it is a made up problem by the "Other"

      We have these problems that shouldn't be ignored, however people don't want to hear about the side effects that can happen from their view. However we need to fully understand these complex problems to help work out a solution. I doubt for problems so large and complex there are going to be many Win-Win solutions. However we can get a Win and a mitigated lost where the value of the win is greater then the lost. But we can't just discredit the people who will be effected by such a solution.
      Lets say we switch for our morning coffee Styrofoam cup, to a paper cup, much greener solution, but the coffee cools down quicker, and it is hot to hold the cup. So lets add that corrugated ring to make the cup easier to hold. We still get a greener solution, and we lost a cup that will keep coffee hotter for longer, but at least we solved the too hot to hold. So it is a mitigated lost, also being that most people will drink their coffee before it gets too cold anyways and the difference between the two will effect a smaller number of people. It isn't a Win-Win but we looked at the solutions and found that there were flaws, some being more serious then others, so we fixed what we can to accommodate the losses, and we end up with a net benefit solution.

    • Re:Popcorn time (Score:5, Funny)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @09:48AM (#57829666)
      By eating popcorn you are just funneling more money and therefore influence to the powerful corn and ethanol/HFCS lobby. Why do you hate the planet and skinny people?
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • That would probably do a lot to stop single use plastic consumption.

    You may have to carbonate the water.

    Maybe we need some sort of biodegradable plastic?

    • Water should come out of your faucet. Some US cities have already banned or taxed single use plastic shopping bags. If you could develop biodegradable plastic that really worked you would make trillions.

      • Some US cities have already banned or taxed single use plastic shopping bags.

        Single use plastic bags have also been banned in the entire state of Hawaii.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by e3m4n ( 947977 )

      Dasani already makes their bottles out of recycled plant waste. I was reusing the same 4 bottles for a month at a time, refilling with filtered water, until another report came out indicating I was at higher risk of ingesting toxins by doing that.

      No good deed goes unpunished.

      • Dasani already makes their bottles out of recycled plant waste. I was reusing the same 4 bottles for a month at a time, refilling with filtered water, until another report came out indicating I was at higher risk of ingesting toxins by doing that.

        No good deed goes unpunished.

        Make certain you get your minimum daily requirement of Bisphenol-A.

        Glass is probably the least troublesome water storage material.

        This might make you cringe, but locally we have some springs, typically near the tops of mountains, that have some of the most wonderful water you've tasted. Unfiltered, fresh out of the ground. People come from miles around to fill jugs of drinking water.

      • I was reusing the same 4 bottles for a month at a time, refilling with filtered water, until another report came out indicating I was at higher risk of ingesting toxins by doing that.

        Simple solution: Use a glass bottle.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by e3m4n ( 947977 )

          I use them for sports but maybe some other material. Metal always has me concerned for similar reasons.

      • Re:Put water in aluminum cans, no plastic bags (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Shotgun ( 30919 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @12:32PM (#57830728)

        Funny how that plastic can sit on shelves and hot trucks for months without releasing toxins, but if you refill it and drink the water that day the concentration is high enough to be deadly.

        Also, funny how the hawkers of a product that is nearly free but is packaged for several dollars a gallon don't want you using the free product.

    • Biodegradable plastic exists. It's just way more expensive to produce than regular plastic.

    • That would probably do a lot to stop single use plastic consumption.

      You may have to carbonate the water.

      Maybe we need some sort of biodegradable plastic?

      The biggest problem regarding plastic is that the recycling/trash aspect of it is coming from two areas. China and Africa. But outfits like the UN are busy yelling at the USA and other first world countries.

      We could drop our plastic waste to zero and it would make no real difference.

      We could freaking ban plastics, go to all glass and metal and cloth and paper bags, and percentage wise, almost no difference.

      It is quite fashionable to lay all problems at the feet of the first world, and especially that

  • Plastic Waste (Score:3, Insightful)

    by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @08:59AM (#57829424)

    I like to think I'm a fairly environmental conscience person but I can't bring myself to care about most plastic waste. As long as it's properly disposed of in a landfill I just don't care. We have enough space for landfill to last at least a couple hundred years and at that point we'll probably be disintegrating our trash..

    • The problem about plastic is not the part that remains on land.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by skam240 ( 789197 )

        Well the two of us can certainly agree on that but there are plenty out there who have very strong feelings about plastic going into landfill.

    • I care but meaningful changes are institutional not individual. Microbeads and straws and fast food sauce containers need some industry group finding suitable replacements before we can just get rid of those things. I'm not going to put my lips on the rim of a glass handled by some McDonald's drive thru window clown. I'm gambling enough that the people handling the food actually washed their hands, much less the guy who is doing hand to hand transactions with hundreds of people prior to handling my cup.

    • Re:Plastic Waste (Score:5, Insightful)

      by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @11:20AM (#57830292) Homepage Journal

      Today's landfills are tomorrow's robotic mines. Labor is just too expensive now.

    • I like to think I'm a fairly environmental conscience person but I can't bring myself to care about most plastic waste. As long as it's properly disposed of in a landfill I just don't care. We have enough space for landfill to last at least a couple hundred years and at that point we'll probably be disintegrating our trash..

      But ... but ... it will just lay there and do nothing!

      Oh ... yeah, I can't be too bothered about it either.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Even if you ignore the problems with landfill, there are other issues.

      Plastic waste gets into the food chain. It gets into places where animals live and kills them. A lot of it is simply not properly disposed of.

      And even if we fixed that, it's better to recycle plastic than it is to create new plastic in many cases. Less energy and pollution required. It would be even better if we avoided creating some of that plastic in the first place, and make the stuff we did create easier to recycle (less dye, using th

    • I recycle a lot - it's a mandatory law in these parts. I'm sure that I personally send in more than 10% of my plastics for food containers etc.

      BUT --- does this 90% include Childrens Toys? Cell phones, the dashboard & engine cover of my car? Meaning... Long term items that I'm still using?

      Since this has been the year of anti-plastics I've been mentally monitoring my plastic usage. Food comes wrapped in it, toys, parts of my toilet, carpet fibres, ethernet cables, my laptop, keyboard, monitor etc

  • The measles one is the one that really gets my goat. That number should be 0. F*** you Andrew Wakefield and Stella McCartney and all the Karens of the world.

    • The anti vaccine crowd is strong. Even in Europe.

      There are doctors that encourage concerned mothers: "If you feel uncomfortable, just don't do it. Chances your child gets it (now) is only 1 in 10,000" ... But if it gets it as an adult later there are concrete chances of life time damage or even death.
      They argue: it is less healthy for the mother and the child to fire fears, than having the child get the disease.

      I'm lucky, I'm old enough to have suffered through all those "child sicknesses" during my early c

  • The crucial point to remember about the 90% of plastic not being recycled is where than plastic is. If it is not in your country then there is very little you can do that will affect the outcome. Many countries have far better records on recycling. So for people there to assume this figure applies to them is unhelpful and misleading.

    Worry about things you can do, not about those you can't change.

  • I can't say about Canada, US or other countries, states or provinces but I know in Québec we got 2 big major problems. The first one is everything that is about our recycling system is just too old. From infrastructure to systems. Its old and not even up to date. So they need to update everything to have better recycling systems. Multiple times in the last year we had to do major dumping in the St-Laurent River. tons of waste in nature. This kind of behavior and decision is simply unacceptable

    companies

  • I get it... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @10:30AM (#57829898) Journal

    ...the point is to leverage western guilt into recycling their water bottles or some shit.

    But isn't the BULK of ocean plastic waste pollution (90%+) coming from 10 rivers? (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stemming-the-plastic-tide-10-rivers-contribute-most-of-the-plastic-in-the-oceans/)

    2 are in Africa, 8 are Asian. The Yangtze alone dumps more than all the other rivers/sources combined.

    Let's be objective then: wealthy suburban Starbucks customers could literally throw every scrap of plastic they use into the ocean directly, and they wouldn't even tickle the needle vs the megatonnage pouring from these 10 rivers. Carry all the stupid stainless-steel straws you like, you're at least giving people an idea of a cheap dumb gift they can give you at Christmas...but you're not doing *anything* for the environment.

    So these sorts of public flagellation programs - if they're produced in English, basically - amount to nothing more than virtue-signaling guilt-assuagement.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yup. But remember, those conditions are entirely the fault of straight, white men.

    • Re:I get it... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @12:37PM (#57830746)

      But isn't the BULK of ocean plastic waste pollution (90%+) coming from 10 rivers? (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stemming-the-plastic-tide-10-rivers-contribute-most-of-the-plastic-in-the-oceans/)

      If you read the article you've linked carefully, those 10 rivers account for 93% of the plastic waste entering the oceans from rivers. But they only account for ~25% of all plastic waste entering the oceans. About 73% comes from sources other than rivers if I did my math right.

      A recent study estimates that more than a quarter of all that waste could be pouring in from just 10 rivers, eight of them in Asia.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Then this article will set everyone straight. American produces 0.9% of all mismanaged plastic waste entering oceans. Cites are provided within the article.

        https://www.earthday.org/2018/04/06/top-20-countries-ranked-by-mass-of-mismanaged-plastic-waste/

        The 19 countries that produce more waste account for 82.2% of all mismanaged plastic waste entering oceans. Almost all of those 19 countries have an access point to those 10 rivers.

        How does that strike you?

    • Yeah but isn't that because (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @12:39PM (#57830754)
      we've been shipping our plastic waste to China? At least until recently. Given how poverty stricken those nations are I somehow doubt they're generating that much waste plastic themselves.

      • Poverty is relative.
        E.g. monthly earning in $US is meaningless. So is GDP etc.
        And then again "rich" white people fly into "poor" countries and produce plastic waste. Thailand had 35.38 million visitors 2017. Population 70million. Obviously tourists only stay a few weeks.

        Thai people produce a huge amount of plastic waste, probably easily 10 times as much as a german. And so do tourists coming here.

        Even my GF who lives rather frugal, produces here more than 10 times the waste I do in Germany.

        • Poverty means two things:

          a. Not having consistent access to basics required for a decent human life (Food, shelter, education, healthcare & transportation).

          b. Being able to be forced to do things you don't want to do because you don't have access to those things (join the military, sell drugs, prostitution, work a job you hate that's also dangerous, etc, etc).

          Poverty is when you don't have enough resources to live a good life and that others with access to those resources can force you to do

    • Well you can start by not exporting your waste to these rivers to be dumped. Also doing something about a general problem rather than pointing at someone else and saying "but look they are worse" is not virtue-signalling.

  • Negativity bias much? How about the good news? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Wrath0fb0b ( 302444 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @10:42AM (#57829984)

    There's an interesting quirk in human psychology that makes negative facts and news seem more salient than positive ones [wikipedia.org]. For media that thrives on reader attention (and that's both new and old media), this naturally leads to more emphasis on the negative.

    I think this is a bias worth noting and pushing back on. The world is pretty far from perfect, but there's also huge helpings of good news all around us.

    • Continuing the trend, nearly 70M people in dire poverty gain access to electricity [iea.org]
    • Extreme global poverty continues its decline [economist.com], although it's getting harder to make progress on that front
    • The US death rate from cancer continues its steady yearly drop [cancer.org]. Cumulatively, this has prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths
    • The pack of criminals who made a wholesale business of taking sex slaves in war lost their last city [theguardian.com]
    • The world continues its steady march [ourworldindata.org] towards universal literacy. You can't embed pictures in /. (for reaaaalllly goatse reasons) but the figures here are really striking
    • The Long Peace [wikipedia.org] continues for another year, meaning millions of lives impacted [youtu.be]
    • Cigarette smoking, a leading cause of totally preventable death, fell to its lowest rate in the US [cdc.gov]
    • Automobile deaths per vehicle mile continued to drop [wikipedia.org]

    Most of these (Daesh not withstanding, but threw them in just because they were really vile) follow the same pattern: slow but steady progress. It's hardly clickbait -- in fact these are not even specific events you can point to, they are trends seen on the scale of decades. And on the scale of decades, the world is consistently becoming a less-bad place.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by swell ( 195815 )

      (Score:3) ?

      Good news doesn't sell, especially on /. Sarcasm is best, or just plain angry diatribes. Vile, vulgar, vapid verbosity might up your Score. But Good News? Someone here will find a dark side to the best news. Is there any popular forum where good news is welcome? Still it was nice of you to try.

      • There are, but sadly the market for good new on the internet is like "Little boy surprised by neighbors with boy" or "firefighter rescues women from fire, finds out she was nurse at his childbirth".

        Good news on the scale of civilization-level progress over decades, not so much. . .

  • Wow, my goodness. Imma stop stereotyping shots of vodka as something manly Russians do.

  • Sometimes one really doesn't understand. People talk about reducing plastic usage, but then they do just the opposite. Recent example: There's a particular brand of cat litter that I usually buy. Cat litter is basically fancy dirt, nothing special, and this brand packed it in a paper bag, which was fine. I went to buy another bag last week, and: they've changed to a heavy-duty plastic bag. WTF?

    I now buy a different brand of fancy dirt...

  • Not necessarily a bad thing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @12:53PM (#57830830)

    itâ(TM)s thought that around 12% of all plastic waste has been incinerated, with roughly 79% accumulating in either landfill or the natural environment

    Plastic originates from oil, and has the chemical form (C2H4)n for polyethelene, C2H3-x for PVC and polysyrene. When we bury it in a landfill, each C there is carbon which has been sequestered back underground, not combusted with atmospheric oxygen to produce CO2. In that respect, its resistance to biodegradation is a good thing, since it prevents bacteria in the landfill from converting it into CH4 (methane) and CO2. In a landfill locked in the form of plastic, that carbon is well and truly sequestered.

    Unfortunately, TFA does not make a distinction between what percentage of plastic ends up in landfills, and what percentage in the natural environment. I'm also curious if the incineration process is high enough in temperature to yield atomic carbon (soot), or if it converts the carbon into CO2. I'm guessing the latter since that yields more energy, helping defray the cost of incineration.

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