How was solar a con? It produced energy, as intended. It’s gotten gradually even better at producing energy through better photovotaics, batteries, molten salt concentrated solar, and kinetic batteries (pumping water uphill during the day, running electro-hydralic power generation at night). But it was never a lie.
Plastic was never recyclable. It’s been burned in the open air in China and Indoneisa ab initio.
You can argue that glass, cardboard, and aluminum can be effectively recycled, but in the context of climate change and fossil fuels, we are taking about petroleum-based plastics. There are too many different kinds of plastic and the cost of recycling versus the cost of new material meant recycling was a chimera from the beginning.
Australia’s national resource recovery rate in 2022–23 was 66%. This comprised 63% recycling, 0.2% waste reuse and 3% energy recovery, mostly associated with the use of landfill gas for generating electricity. In 2016–17, the resource recovery rate was 61%
For clarity, the resource recovery rate is the proportion of generated waste that is allocated to waste reuse, recycling or energy recovery.
Solar energy used to be a similar con and look at it now.
How was solar a con? It produced energy, as intended. It’s gotten gradually even better at producing energy through better photovotaics, batteries, molten salt concentrated solar, and kinetic batteries (pumping water uphill during the day, running electro-hydralic power generation at night). But it was never a lie.
Plastic was never recyclable. It’s been burned in the open air in China and Indoneisa ab initio.
You can argue that glass, cardboard, and aluminum can be effectively recycled, but in the context of climate change and fossil fuels, we are taking about petroleum-based plastics. There are too many different kinds of plastic and the cost of recycling versus the cost of new material meant recycling was a chimera from the beginning.
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/protection/waste/publications/national-waste-resource-recovery-reporting/resource-recovery-waste-material-analysis-2024
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/measuring-what-matters/measuring-what-matters-themes-and-indicators/sustainable/circular-economy