it's so funny how immune i am to hustle culture. people will talk about taking breaks for their mental health and how difficult it was for them to do what was right for them and i'm like. it's absolutely unreal how quickly i'll dump something i don't want to do anymore.
NPR and PBS Frontline spent months digging into internal industry documents and interviewing top former officials. We found that the industry sold the public on an idea it knew wouldn't work — that the majority of plastic could be, and would be, recycled — all while making billions of dollars selling the world new plastic.
The industry's awareness that recycling wouldn't keep plastic out of landfills and the environment dates to the program's earliest days, we found. "There is serious doubt that [recycling plastic] can ever be made viable on an economic basis," one industry insider wrote in a 1974 speech.
Yet the industry spent millions telling people to recycle, because, as one former top industry insider told NPR, selling recycling sold plastic, even if it wasn't true.
"If the public thinks that recycling is working, then they are not going to be as concerned about the environment," Larry Thomas, former president of the Society of the Plastics Industry, known today as the Plastics Industry Association and one of the industry's most powerful trade groups in Washington, D.C., told NPR.
In response, industry representative Steve Russell, until recently the vice president of plastics for the trade group the American Chemistry Council, said the industry has never intentionally misled the public about recycling and is committed to ensuring all plastic is recycled.
"The proof is the dramatic amount of investment that is happening right now," Russell said. "I do understand the skepticism, because it hasn't happened in the past, but I think the pressure, the public commitments and, most important, the availability of technology is going to give us a different outcome."
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.
It could be because that's not what they were told.
Starting in the 1990s, the public saw an increasing number of commercials and messaging about recycling plastic.
"The bottle may look empty, yet it's anything but trash," says one ad from 1990 showing a plastic bottle bouncing out of a garbage truck. "It's full of potential. ... We've pioneered the country's largest, most comprehensive plastic recycling program to help plastic fill valuable uses and roles."
These commercials carried a distinct message: Plastic is special, and the consumer should recycle it.
Demand that companies stop using plastic in their products. Going plastic-free as a consumer isn’t accessible to most people, since all of the cheapest (and sometimes the only) stuff on the shelf uses plastic. And even if it were, a handful of consumers going off plastic so they can feel good about their own consumption would barely make a dent compared to all the ones who won’t pay attention + the mass amount of plastic used by big companies and industries outside of the eyes of any consumers. So start awareness campaigns, protest in front of company headquarters, form human blockades in front of factories - whatever it takes
Then, get involved with Precious Plastic if possible. It’s small-scale community-run plastic recycling, built around reducing waste rather than making profits. Even if we successfully shut down the plastic industry tomorrow, there will still be massive amounts of plastic already in the world, so we need to make sure we make the best use of that waste while also doing our best to put an end to virgin plastic use
Not more recyclable, though. And much more energy-intensive to refine in the first place. Glass doesn't need to be refined from ores, is reasonably simple to manipulate and form, and it breaks down into sand naturally over time.
with everything that’s going on with bon apetit, i thought i’d just share some of my favorite recipe-based youtube channels run by people of color
just one cookbook - a super wide variety of japanese recipes. easy step-by-steps and all the recipes i’ve tried have been delicious
souped up recipes - chinese recipes - very informative videos and tasty food - i love her personality too
maangchi - who doesn’t love maangchi. delicious korean recipes and a fabulous personality
get curried - a huge variety of recipes from various regions of india
simply mama cooks - my fav for tejano food. i believe she’s a mexicana married into a korean family, and draws a lot from that
immaculate bites - mostly quick ‘tasty’ style video recipes focusing on southern us, african, and carribean foods. easy and delicious stuff!
stove top kisses - fun and delicious recipes and the videos are super fun to watch - mostly american food
j kenji lopez alt - author of the book ‘the food lab’ - he’s maybe my favorite recipe developer out there. all kinds of food and hes super knowledgeable
Here are some vegan channels run by people of color, as well!
gourmet vegetarian kitchen - super creative projects. i personally find them very inspiring since she does things like make vegan cheese or ferment soy beans over the course of months
peaceful cuisine - he makes asmr & recipe versions of videos. everything is vegan. lots of desserts and traditional japanese cuisine
rachel ama - vegan food with a frequent caribbean twist! I love her! She has her own cookbook
cheap lazy vegan - her channel has an angle of vegan food intended for low budgets. she creates a lot of simple recipes. she has a recipe ebook as well as a free newsletter
Sruthi’s Kitchen - Huge catalog of instructional videos; exclusively vegetarian.
My Heart Beets - My go-to for everything pressure-cooker related, and almost all of her recipes happen to be gluten-free (even more content on her website).
Food with Chetna - Mostly Indian recipes with some British/Western-Desi fusion thrown in.
Desi Food Recipes - Okay, this one is mostly in Hindi, but—it’s just an entire channel of a little granny making Indian food using traditional Desi cooking methods, and it’s so goddamn soothing??? I haven’t cooked a thing from this channel but watching this woman make ladoo cleansed my fucking soul. Just watch it.
I’ve actually ended up making a lot more food from De Mi Rancho rather than BA because she’s making simple food for her family with ingredients that are a lot easier to find.
Just adding some of my favorite East Asian channels: my boy Nino’s Home, the absolute ASMR channel Cooking Tree and the most adventurous, most respectful Emmymadeinjapan!!
So one day I was like oh maybe I should listen to tma that's a gay little podcast and I like gay little podcasts and then my friend described how clowns slathered jon up with moisturiser like they were buttering bread just to get his skin extra soft like a fresh baby and decided actually no absolutely not
tangentwithtanner
amandla
vaporwave
ellievsbear
romaincrisis
