When St Bernard gets serious about recycling

St Bernard has no real drive to recycle plastics, cardboard, newspapers, or glass. Residents and parish officials seem more content, almost proud, to provide curbside junk disposal then reducing waste. We can't afford to keep all our fire stations open, yet we pay dumpster tipping fees for almost anything.

Let's get serious and begin by manufacturing less plastic (i.e.,  #stopformosa ) using less plastic, and demanding actual recycling for what plastic we might purchase. Demand different packaging.

According to Laura Sullivan's 2020 article, we can no longer ship used plastic for overseas recycling.

Then why is Louisiana gifting more industrial tax exemptions to a proposed massive plastics plant in St James and the sponsoring a State Port in St Bernard for plastics pellets containers [1]? Does that mean St Bernard's proposed State Port container shipyard will also become the plastics storing hub?

When St Bernard gets serious about recycling, our decisions will be to reduce use, reduce waste.

According to Laura Sullivan's 2020 article, we can no longer ship used plastic for overseas recycling.

Here's the basic problem: All used plastic can be turned into new things, but picking it up, sorting it out and melting it down is expensive. Plastic also degrades each time it is reused, meaning it can't be reused more than once or twice.

On the other hand, new plastic is cheap. It's made from oil and gas, and it's almost always less expensive and of better quality to just start fresh.

All of these problems have existed for decades, no matter what new recycling technology or expensive machinery has been developed. In all that time, less than 10 percent of plastic has ever been recycled. But the public has known little about these difficulties.

NPR How Big Oil Misled The Public into Believing Plastic Would be Recycled

Laura Sullivan

Formosa Louisiana Wrong Products Wrong Time Wrong Place Wrong Finances

IEEFA  March 2021

Tom Sanzillo, Director of Financial Analysis 

Suzanne Mattei, Energy Policy Analyst

[1] State Port townhall meeting in St Bernard, the proposed State Port container shipyard will be used for exporting plastic pellets to produce retail containers for products like shampoo and laundry detergent.