Hidden among the tsunami of plastic waste America sent to Southeast Asia last year were three of the 19 tracking devices ABC News secured to plastic bags and dropped off at Walmart store recycling bins across the U.S. Two of those trackers ended up at plastic facilities outside of Port Klang, Malaysia, not far from Pua Lay Peng's hometown, while a third landed in Indonesia.
The investigation began more than 18 months ago, when ABC News and nine of its affiliated and owned stations secured 46 digital tracking devices to plastic bags and deployed them at Walmart and Target store drop-off recycling bins across 10 states. ABC News closely monitored the trackers for months and checked each facility they pinged from to ensure that the trackers likely had not been detected as contamination along their journey. Ultimately, the vast majority of trackers never pinged from a plastic bag recycling facility, with many ending up in landfills or incinerators.
Only four trackers last pinged from a U.S. facility that said it was involved in plastic bag recycling. However, subsequent public records requests and additional research have revealed that all four of these facilities likely either trashed the plastic bags in the U.S. or exported them abroad, though none of the facilities would divulge to ABC News specifically where the bags were sent.
Exporting plastic waste, particularly to poorer nations, is a controversial practice. Often decried by critics as "waste colonialism," the United Nations has described it as "highly prone to corruption," and the international community has tried to curb the trade through the 2019 Basel Convention's Amendments on Plastic Waste, which set strict regulations for international plastic waste shipments.
The U.S, however, one of the world's biggest plastic producers, is among five U.N.-recognized countries that refused to join the agreement and which continues to send plastic waste abroad with little oversight. Since 2020, more than 600,000 metric tons of plastic waste has been shipped from U.S. ports to countries around the world under the premise of "recycling," according to an ABC News analysis of data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/plastic-bags-w...=109491232
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I am not one of these new wave left wing globalist woke EV pushing climate activists.
I do, however, love our Mother Earth.
I grew up as an outdoorsman/waterman. I have always enjoyed the outdoors and the natural beauty of our planet. I have always believed that it is up to us to take care of our host. It is our responsibility to leave our planet as in order and as natural, and clean as we can for the next generations to come. We should respect nature and all it's inhabitants. I lived by the motto, "Leave only your footprints behind." For those reading who may not get that saying, it's means, to not leave your trash behind, or disturb anything. To leave things as you found them.
Plastic is something I have always taken issue with. It is one of our biggest problems, and it is numerous different types of problems, all due to plastic.
To learn that we are simply dumping our plastic on another country, making them our landfill, and as those people have to breathe in the toxic fumes of burning plastic (that is OURS), really pisses me off to no end.
This is just down right disgusting, and I wanted to write about it, so that we can all see what's really been going on with our "recycled plastic."
The article is very interesting with a lot more detail about exactly where our supposed "recycling" is actually going.
The investigation began more than 18 months ago, when ABC News and nine of its affiliated and owned stations secured 46 digital tracking devices to plastic bags and deployed them at Walmart and Target store drop-off recycling bins across 10 states. ABC News closely monitored the trackers for months and checked each facility they pinged from to ensure that the trackers likely had not been detected as contamination along their journey. Ultimately, the vast majority of trackers never pinged from a plastic bag recycling facility, with many ending up in landfills or incinerators.
Only four trackers last pinged from a U.S. facility that said it was involved in plastic bag recycling. However, subsequent public records requests and additional research have revealed that all four of these facilities likely either trashed the plastic bags in the U.S. or exported them abroad, though none of the facilities would divulge to ABC News specifically where the bags were sent.
Exporting plastic waste, particularly to poorer nations, is a controversial practice. Often decried by critics as "waste colonialism," the United Nations has described it as "highly prone to corruption," and the international community has tried to curb the trade through the 2019 Basel Convention's Amendments on Plastic Waste, which set strict regulations for international plastic waste shipments.
The U.S, however, one of the world's biggest plastic producers, is among five U.N.-recognized countries that refused to join the agreement and which continues to send plastic waste abroad with little oversight. Since 2020, more than 600,000 metric tons of plastic waste has been shipped from U.S. ports to countries around the world under the premise of "recycling," according to an ABC News analysis of data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/plastic-bags-w...=109491232
--------------------------------------------
I am not one of these new wave left wing globalist woke EV pushing climate activists.
I do, however, love our Mother Earth.
I grew up as an outdoorsman/waterman. I have always enjoyed the outdoors and the natural beauty of our planet. I have always believed that it is up to us to take care of our host. It is our responsibility to leave our planet as in order and as natural, and clean as we can for the next generations to come. We should respect nature and all it's inhabitants. I lived by the motto, "Leave only your footprints behind." For those reading who may not get that saying, it's means, to not leave your trash behind, or disturb anything. To leave things as you found them.
Plastic is something I have always taken issue with. It is one of our biggest problems, and it is numerous different types of problems, all due to plastic.
To learn that we are simply dumping our plastic on another country, making them our landfill, and as those people have to breathe in the toxic fumes of burning plastic (that is OURS), really pisses me off to no end.
This is just down right disgusting, and I wanted to write about it, so that we can all see what's really been going on with our "recycled plastic."
The article is very interesting with a lot more detail about exactly where our supposed "recycling" is actually going.
