This is one thing that makes me not want to use recycled stuff... There is a much wider variety of contamination in it.<p>Sure, we hopefully test for known-poisonous contamination, but there are all kinds of not-yet-known-to-be-poisonous contaminants, and recycled stuff has a much higher chance of having that than things made from new ingredients.
I feel like the real environmental problem we have is chemical pollution we are generating throughout the world, and I feel like these companies are diverting people's attentions with carbon and global warming. Yes, that is a problem but I feel like the chemical pollution in our waters and in our food supply is a much more immediate issue. Yet almost no focus is done on it. It very much feels like what the sugar industry did back in the 1960s to divert attention away from sugar and onto fats, which lead to decades of wrong advice and bad food habits.
What is the solution to recycled plastic? Asia is no longer buying it from America (1) and it's more carbon polluting to use recycled plastic (2) so.. what is the answer?<p>1) <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/750864036/u-s-recycling-industry-is-struggling-to-figure-out-a-future-without-china" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/750864036/u-s-recycling-indus...</a><p>2) <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/sep/24/lego-abandons-effort-to-make-bricks-from-recycled-plastic-bottles" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/sep/24/lego-ab...</a>
What plastics are still safe to use? Polycarbonate is made from phthalates (BPA and others), an unknown portion of HDPE contains PFOAs, PET plastic bottles leach antimony when hot...