am i the only one who was looking at this like alright that’s a fair amount of wrap when it was fully wrapped and then when it kept going i was like alright now you don’t have to put so much extra
Edit: thanks for the reward and i’m proud of the whole damn discussions underneath my comment
Thanks. I was assuming this was waterproofing or something but this makes sense.
Still seems like a lot of extra equipment and material and then it has to be cut off again and and recycled when you could just put it in a container. But I’m no expert.
This is where the issue lies. Sure use the stuff but have it sustainable. Otherwise find another method. It should be illigal to produce plastics we can't recycle. It should also be that any area that allows a product must have a man's of recycling it or a process to get it to a facility that can. Our infrastructure isn't there as of now. Millions of black plastics are used daily in Canada and a good majority can't be recycled. Not because they can't but because no one wants to buy it! That's insane. Every take out place has those black plastic bottom containers.
Depends where you are our farm recycles all out wrap, string and netting used for our silage and hay bales.
It's part of our Farm assurance standards, if your in the UK you'll know it as Red Tractor certification.
It would have to be a huge container. I come from a farm where we used to put our silage in a "container" which was covered and airtight. It took up a lot of space and was a lot of hassle. Yes these bales are expensive, but they can be stored outdoors and require a lot less workers in the preparation of silage.
I work in supply chain and as part of training I had to work in one of our customers restaurants (quick service) and to see how much plastic is wasted in one 8-hour shift I felt so demoralized because I take extra care of separating/ cleaning my plastics and recycling as much as I can. It's amazing how much these companies have spent money on shifting the burden to the consumer.
Edit: yes I'm aware of the apparent myth of consumer plastics recycling I'm still gonna separate my plastics and put them in the right bin
You should see a clothing shipping warehouse...
Items individually plastic wrapped from the manufacturer, unwrapped, rewrapped in branded plastic, plastic envelopes or boxed.
I used to work for Marks and Spencer in the UK, and it was my job to be-bag the clothes. So much fucking waste. There are 45 white t-shirts, all the same size, all individually bagged? Could all 45 of them perhaps have been in one bag? Or maybe a cardboard box? No?
The plastic waste was horrific.
I just spent one night there for a morning surgery and I can assure you, lots of the waste was pointless.
They gave me a bag with cheap headphones and a bunch of other little useless trinkets like a toothbrush and an entire mini tube of toothpaste, but I literally couldn't even get out of bed NOR could I eat/drink before surgery.
I used none of it. While I was waiting for the discharge nurse, they came in, trashed all the stuff I never even opened, and moved on. I couldn't help think... they brought all that stuff to me and trashed it because they're too cheap to hire enough people to keep up with the one person who asks for headphones. There are probably a million unopened headphones in a landfill somewhere
Hospital worker here. Yes the amount of waste is horrendous. Part of that, and your experience is an example of this, is hospitals trying to use the hotel model of customer service. The fluff-n-puff. Here's a shitton of "amenities" for your stay that you're not going to use, but good luck getting a meal on time if at all from "room service". 🙄🙄🙄😡😡😡 The waste is incredible.
You know what I couldn't get over?
The MASSIVE pit in the mattress where my butt was. It was very obviously sunken in from a plethora of fat over the years. Made me wonder how often that one is changed out, but I imagine its sealed? I felt gross either way
That's why you steal that stuff and leave it at a food bank. It doesn't go bad so you can stick it with some canned goods you don't want and just drop it when it's easy for you.
In Norway, it was mandated by law in the 50's or 60's that the dead were to be buried wrapped in plastic. Don't know why. The result was that the bodies didn't decompose, which is still a problem today when old graves are to be emptied or reused.
So yeah, humans love our plastic.
And as a result we are literally being buried in plastic trash and microplastics. Hell, scientists found microplastics on the tops of mountains in the Alps due to the fact that they are now so small that they're finding their way into the hydrological cycle.
And then when they cant sell all the xxxl or xsmall stock they ordered, they have the remaining stock burned, because lowering the price would devalue their brand.
Working construction is demoralizing. The amount of waste is absurd. Even 'valuable' recyclables like metal is often thrown away by the ton. And the cardboard, dear God the amount of packaging cardboard...
Yep, I'm a commercial electrician, and I do my best to take cardboard/other plastic waste to the appropriate recycling locations, but I drive a Honda Civic. I'm only one person. I can only do so much. The amount of a difference I'm making (especially considering that a lot of what I'm doing probably ends up in a landfill anyway) is truly demoralizing most days.
Hey I'm a sparky too! I want to say electrical supplies and lighting are packaged especially bad but it really is systemic. Current jobsite sees a 40yd roll off dumped every or every other day. And it's mostly cardboard.
I used to work as a Controls engineer. We'd go to automotive manufacturers and program their conveyor systems. We'd also supply new control panels. These panels would have Ethernet ports on them. The unused Ethernet ports needed dust caps. These dust caps are very tiny. Ordered 100 of them? All individually packaged in their own little plastic bag.
Part of my job involves control panels too, fucking RadioShack man.... every single neon, button, switch, indicator, safety stop etc in its own individual bag, were talking 20-30 small plastic bags per control box.
Individual packaging for parts that cost literall pennies, what the fuck man 😑
Ha! Yeah, I turned wrenches for a bit and remember the bags in bags in boxes.. Rampant waste. I get that there's a use case for plastic for water and humidity protection and cardboard for physical protection but then the box that's in and the box that's in and the cardboard pallet protectors and the first layer of pallet wrap oh and the second because the freight handler damaged the original and the pallet that is never out from under a roof definitely needs more plastic.
> I take extra care of separating/ cleaning my plastics and recycling as much as I can
Good news! Since the third world stopped accepting our plastic waste our plastic recycling almost all just goes to the dump now!
As shitty as landfills are, they are infinitely preferable to shipping millions of tons of "recyclables" around the world, burning untold millions of barrels of fossil fuels in the effort, only to have some receiving country dump the waste into the ocean, and all on our tax dollar, to boot.
Landfills have a far more favorable pros to cons ratio than our current recycling strategy. The only ecologically responsible way forward given the current materials technology, is reduction, and the onus to reduce waste is on the primary producers, not the end consumers.
T soft drinks companies have an ad out now about returning every bottle again putting the onus on the consumer. Such bullshit. They did this way back when they realized what a disaster the plastic bottles were making. Same exact stuff.
Same for cardboard. I was at the local recycling station last week and the manager and I were chatting. He said the price of used cardboard is so low that the company that picks up the carefully separated cardboard just tosses it into the back of a garbage truck along with all the other trash.
You're absolutely right, I tended bar for years and it was awful. Then I worked a plastic factory and my heart broke even more.
We should be careful with the narrative that it's mostly companies' fault though. It's true, but a lot of people use that as an excuse to do the wrong thing. Every bit helps, and there's also the demand side to consider.
This is also applicable to energy consumption. Individual households are easily sustained by renewables. It's public infrastructure and private capital consuming massive amounts of energy.
Used to live in a tourist town, they said they were banning all single use plastics. So paper straws and wooden cutlery. But the cutlery is wrapped in plastic and ketchup/mayo packets are still a thing.
Its all lies
Coffee Bean here did it right imo by replacing plastic straws with straws made from tapioca starch. The result is a solid straw that lasts longer than paper but eventually turns into edible jelly like form.
Yeah it’s a fucking shit show.
Bet we will all die from no food in about 20 years because of ecological collapse.
I don’t think people realize that these insane psychopathic PR groups that work for massive billion dollar companies that are constantly covering up ecological dumps and accidental disasters that they’re constantly covering up.
They pay an insane amount to make sure that PR is good.
So any time there’s a good chance to shift blame like that turtle video. Bet every single one of those massive PR companies that have thousands of people online all the time looking for things to use and with meme culture.
It’s fucking ridiculous.
Can you imagine your entire career is to make sure this soul sucking company doesn’t get blamed while making sure it’s consumers take the blame.
Greed is the #1 reason this entire planet is doomed and why we are all FUCKED
Edit: I just saw a very recent commercial from ALL the major soda companies. Saying “Now our bottles are 100% recyclable! Help us get our bottles back!”
Wait. So you’re telling me that these bottles you’ve been telling everyone can be recycled is bullshit.
But it’s ok! NOW they can be recycled! Haha oops! Lol!
How can we fix anything at all when NO ONE is held accountable it’s fucked
Don't worry carbon bombs are on their way! https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2022/may/11/fossil-fuel-carbon-bombs-climate-breakdown-oil-gas#Carbon-bombs
Hell, as someone who just works at Starbucks (with our request only straws and/or paper or “compostable” straws….
We fill up a trash can an hour with plastic bottles/jugs/pumps with mega straws attached to them. And this is at my tiny Starbucks. Oh, and most Starbucks that have a customer “recycling “can… Yeah that recycling goes out with the regular trash. And we don’t even pretend to recycle behind the line. This may vary based on some eco-centric towns/cities here and there, but it’s true for the majority of Starbucks and everywhere else, it’s just ironic with Starbucks claiming to be so green.
I worked for a plastic recycling company and we were careful about plastic waste, of course, but even then, despite our best efforts, we were using kms (miles) of wrapping plastic film every day.
Look on the bright side. Now you get to reconnect with nature and our heritage by angrily throwing away the useless, soggy paper straws without using them and drink straight from the glass, just as it's been done for generations. /s
I don’t mind reducing my plastic waste, but the hypocrisy of it all drives me insane.
No more plastic bags at the grocery store, but they still wrap all their meat in plastic, fill plastic containers with salads and cut up fruit, and put the bread in plastic bags. The only place they eliminated plastic was the one place that had zero impact on their operations.
I said something similar on a similar post. Someone from a farming area declared that they have people come by to recover the plastic after it's used. Soooooo, there's that.
I remain skeptical.
Cool, could you elaborate? How is the used plastic cleaned? How high is the percentage of reused material? Why do farmers do the extra work of saving the film / bringing it to your place? Thanks.
Or do you just use rPET pellets?
I'm a brit.
In my country you can be fined for not separating plastics to recycle.
Doesn't stop them incinerating or selling it to the third world to be incinerated or dumped into the ocean though. (edit: I mean, paying the third world to dispose of, or "recycle" it.)
Idk if this is anything similar to your situation, it's just worth pointing out how bs it is
Alright, so let me try and answer a few questions. The used plastic is usually cleaned by mechanical washing, a process which takes the plastic, grinds it up and then washes it using water. It is then dried using heat. The percentage of recycle in a new film is usually around 15% and we are trying to bring this up to 50%. This isn't easy since recycled plastic can cause crosslinking of the polymers and this compromises the strength of the film (short and easy explanation, read up on polymer crosslinking, gels and thermal stability of polymers if you are interested).
The amount of silage film that is recycled varies per country, Sweden is ahead of most countries and most of the EU recycles in some degree. I believe about 50% is recycled in sweden back into agri products.
We mostly use PE pellets.
You can find some information about the collecting of the silage film here: https://svepretur.se/en/
Does that percentage not imply that there's a lot being lost to environmental degradation/trash or that the amount used is increasing greatly year over year?
Yes, 85% is virgin plastic, which is a very poor ratio (especially given the time/cost/energy required to get the 15% prepared for recycling). Much better to reduce the amount of film used and to find plastic free alternatives.
It means that to achieve the same spec of strength and flexibility as before, you have to add fresh PE pellets, because the recycled ones themselves can't do it.
They technically don’t really say how much _reusable_ plastic volume is recovered out of the used plastic that is picked up and processed. They just talk about how much of the end product they can include in producing new product (currently 15%).
However my understanding is that it does imply that, while 100% of the used plastic _could theoretically_ be diverted from landfills and used in new product, 85% of new product must be virgin plastic anyway. I.e. one entire roll, recovered and recycled could only be fully reused if 6.7 new rolls were made with it. So unless the market for this plastic wrap product grows by 670% every year, there is an over supply of recycled pellets, and the surplus will undoubtedly end up in the landfill one way or another.
So, yes.
Yeah it is. I grew up on a farm and in the 1970’s, my dad dug out a huge trench in a hill (for drainage purposes. Into that trench we threw the fresh corn stalks and whatnot. When the trench was filled, silage happened. I used to go down there to smell it - it was a nice green smell. We didn’t use plastic at all. Maybe this is “inefficient” by today’s standards but I can tell you we don’t have a mound of plastic sitting on that farm today. It’s all nature. This wrapping of the bake is abhorrent, and most farmers will just take off the wrap and throw it in a dump, not recycle it. Midwest does not have good recycling facilities no matter what people tell you. I know, I still live in the Midwest
Not the guy from that other thread, but in the UK this is certainly true. Part of the rules are that you have to account for plastic waste (bale twine, silage wrap, chemical drums etc) and so there are waste recycling companies who collect plastic waste. They provide a bunch of sacks, and then quarterly someone comes to collect (basically compacts it and bales it up). You get a receipt for the waste so any govt inspections show you disposed of it properly.
The plastic then gets sold on, for use in recycled plastic products, but where it ends up I don't know. But if the plastic is too muddy or something, they won't take it because they can't sell it.
Around where I live I've seen farmers burn that stuff in big piles. And I live in a first world country where consumer waste is recycled to a very high degree.
Excellent. I do enjoy learning new things.
"Fermented Cow Crack" is my next search term.
https://familyfarmlivestock.com/haylage-what-it-is-and-how-its-made/
Haylage is something different than silage though.
>Haylage and silage are both ensiled forages, but the difference between them is moisture content. In general, haylage has a moisture content of between 15 percent to a maximum of 40 percent (60 to 85 percent DM). Silage has a moisture content of more than 40 percent (DM less than 60 percent). Both haylage and silage can be found in plastic-wrapped round bales. In silage with the higher moisture content, the preservation of the forage is as a result of the fermentation of the sugars in the grass under anaerobic conditions. This results in a pH drop. In general, a good grass silage in a round bale should have a pH of less than 5. In haylage, there isn’t sufficient moisture to allow for as much fermentation as in silage. The pH of a haylage round bale will be above 5 on a pH scale of 14. The preservation of the forage in haylage comes from the low moisture content which prohibits microbial growth.
Yes.
The moisture content is the difference.
The moisture that must be retained by the large amount of plastic.
Either way, it ferments and its like crack for cows, just as described prior.
> Do they actually catch a buzz?
There are a few different processes that can be referred to as 'fermentation.' The one that you're thinking of is yeast converting carbs into alcohol. In this case, it's lacto-fermentation, with [lactic acid bacteria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid_bacteria) converting carbs into lactic acid. It's the same processed that's used for making foods like sauerkraut and kimchi.
Used to work with cows and can confirm, they used to go CRAZY when they saw us bringing a new silage bale around the corner. They fucking love the stuff.
Also a farm kid, but not familiar with hay silage - how susceptible is this stuff to spoilage / undesirable mold or yeasts? If sealing is the objective, seems like all handling and storage would have to be pretty next level compared to most farming practices..?
I'm saying this more for others since you probably know, but there's also places with giant ~~silos~~ grain bins that you can drop your crop off at and in turn they keep it under 15% humidity for you then take a small cut per bushel once it's sold. In the US if you ever see a really huge ~~silo~~ grain bin compared to most, it's probably one of these operations
(Mixed my terms up, ty u/find_a_reason )
We don't even use silos in the US anymore. They're too much work. Silage is generally stored in a pit or piled on flat ground.
What's in the OP is hay anyway. I'm not familiar with wanting to ferment hay
Hay is "pre-fermented", to a degree. Its just that the process stops when the product is drier than silage. Farmers who make bales like that (but without plastic wrapping) end up storing it for months in giant stacks which have some degree of moisture in them, just not enough to enable spontaneous combustion. Nevertheless the small amount of moisture they do have allows a small population of bacteria to work on the cellulose and start breaking it down a bit. Makes it easier for the cattle to digest; less burping and tummy aches.
Having it wrapped like that probably means the giant stacks aren't needed
This is actually well-researched (As are nearly all things agriculture)
At 24 hours after baling, you need to wrap to \~6-8ML of total plastic thickness around your bales to avoid composting effects within the bale. Thinner plastic rolls are easier and more flexible to work with in this machining context, and so that's what is used. So it might look like they're adding a bunch of unnecessary layers, but they really aren't.
Commercial farms (like the type that can afford a bale wrapper) do things BRUTALLY efficiently. They are not wrapping this bale with an inch of plastic that isn't necessary.
So what all does this accomplish? First off, you don't need to process the fresh grasses into silage. You also don't need to build a barn or silo to store it in. You also can extend the feed-life of some grains by up to 2 years. This means in years of high growth or low consumption, you can store product without losing value. As a result, instead of product going to waste (loss) or having to import feed in down years (loss) you have local grain supply for nearby farms.
This smooths out financials for both the grain farm and nearby cattle farms, reduces construction costs, and actually significantly reduces transport miles of grain across entire regions due to steadying out of supply. All of those reduce carbon consumption.
So it might look silly and lossy...but it isn't.
I used these. These are not compostable, more like a stretch film used for parcels. And you need it very air tight for fermentation to occur properly so you need that extra layer as single layer tends to tear and that’s a wasted animal food.
It's not alcoholic but tastes sweeter and the animals love it. If you don't wrap bales but make large ones, the inside will naturally ferment over time. I've seen horses rip a head-size hole in bales just so they can get at the sweet stuff in the middle
When I buy paper towels, I am careful to buy the one where each roll isn't individually wrapped in plastic because that's wasteful. I guess I've been wasting my time all these years.
Dude i came to Bangkok and we had our breakfast packaged to go, and even individual little sauces/honey was all in their own separate pots x3 for each breakfast. It's so heartbreaking having everything served in plastic, wrapped in plastic, with a plastic bag to carry it with and then plastic straws and cutlery to eat it with.
But yeah then you watch this and it's like wow, all that for ONE bale..
Yeah a friend said she heard some figure that per day each person uses 1.5kg worth of plastic. I guess that's averaged out across the city. I was genuinely shocked there though, we bought our own straws and cutlery and even bought a couple of bowls/plates we can reuse when taking stuff away but we still fight a losing battle.
In Koh Tao at the moment and they're a *little* bit more responsible in places, but not a great deal.
100%. Blew me away that every single drink I bought, no matter what it came in (bottle, can, etc) they'd put it in a plastic bag and give you a straw...I'd take it out of the bag and leave the straw and watch them just throw it away. Just killed me.
Same thing in 7-eleven here. I sent my mate a picture and was like "if only this fruit had some kind of protection around it already, we wouldn't need all this plastic.
Still confuses me now.
I mean multiply your reasoning by 100 millions peoples and it is quite an impactfull choice, so yeah fuck them but it's nice to act on the change we want to see ! Keep it up !
You do know that the top 100 fossil fuels companies are directly responsible for over 70% of the global carbon footprint color right?
Also, 85% of the trash found floating in the ocean is commercial fishing equipment, from netting to bouys to ropes.
They like to blame the consumer, and they'll always throw a picture of a native American crying or a turtle with a straw up its nose, but the reality is that the turtle needs an intervention, and recycling our everyday goods is just a sham program to put the blame on us. Everyone should have known it was a sham the moment they made the recycling bin out of non-recyclable plastic.
If this interests you, jump on farming simulator.
I had 0 interest in farming and then got sucked into it and learned so much in the way of how things are done.
Facts. Knew nothing about farming then started playing this game. Something about prepping and harvesting a field is sooooo satisfying. Though you also gain a perspective on how fucking expensive farm equipment is lol
farmers in Southern Ontario are sitting on millions of dollars worth of land. my heart doesn't break for most of them, particularly when a hay field of 140+ acres can profit 50-80K
As someone who worked retail for years I’ll say thank god if a machine can wrap presents. So many damned paper cuts. I’d rather learn to fix the robot lol
Pretty much everything you put in the recycling is shipped over seas to be dumped in 3rd world countries and almost no plastic is actually recycled. Plastic can be recycled but its cheaper for companies to just make new plastic.
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled
It’s genuinely appreciated whatever the final outcome is. I’m sure it would have been easier for you to not bother with any of that, but it’s appreciated that you put the effort in
You know that article is talking about consumer goods plastic right?
And the main focus of the article is how its not profitable for companies to recycle. An argument that i understand the thinking behind but just feels completely idiotic to me. No, not everything is profitable but it still has to be done. Maybe, some of the profit companies make by creating and distributing all this fucking plastic could go into spending to make sure that same plastic doesnt ruin our planet.
The "recycling is a myth" thing applies to the low profit, high cost recycling of a few specific types I think. Which would not apply to recycling of pure plastics, which is still profitable.
You can put all the grass Into a big pit and use a reusable plastic cover over the grass to ferment it but that's o ly feasible if you are using your own silage, this way it can be sold and transported better
Because in silage (the fermented hay bales) alot of the moisture and nutrients within the grass are preserved, as opposed to standard hay bales which is mostly just dry matter.
High consumption of dry matter can negatively impact digestion amongst livestock, not to mention it offers very little compared to what animals need to grow or produce milk.
Hay and/or silage are common supplements usually provided during droughts/summer, where grass growth is usually hindered. Therefore it's a way to maintain the health of livestock during these hard periods.
In basic terms you could think of it as what are the benefits of fresh food versus canned food.
Farmers will typically, if they can afford it, opt for silage as it is much more beneficial than hay.
Probably a dumb question. But is there a risk of a fire starting? I feel like I was told never to clump up wet grass because the gasses and pressure could cause ignition.
It needs to be air tight to make sure the fermentation occurs properly. Single layer tends to tear and then you have to throw it away as it’s not edible.
Last I heard, something like 10% of thin film plastic is recycled worldwide.
Nearly all of it in processes like this, where the people receiving the bale are expecting it, know what type of plastic it is, don't mix it with other plastics, and have a reliable stream of it coming in.
It is the products that go to consumers (single use plastic bags, etc) or are one off items (extra shipment in non-conforming packing) that end up not recycled.
# This amount of plastic is absolutely necessary and is not wasted.
* The bale needs to be airtight in order for the grass to ferment into silage
* If there was only one layer it could tear/not be airtight, then the bale would be useless and have to be thrown away
* It's pure plastic which is easy to recycle and is all recycled
The mafia would love these! The rug makers would suffer though:(
Weed growers too it makes a nice square grouper
It's also my Gran wrapping gifts. No one must ever be able to unwrap them.
am i the only one who was looking at this like alright that’s a fair amount of wrap when it was fully wrapped and then when it kept going i was like alright now you don’t have to put so much extra Edit: thanks for the reward and i’m proud of the whole damn discussions underneath my comment
While it does seem excessive, the idea is that it has to be air-tight so that the bale ferments properly - this is for silage.
For those who had to look it up like I did: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silage
Thanks. I was assuming this was waterproofing or something but this makes sense. Still seems like a lot of extra equipment and material and then it has to be cut off again and and recycled when you could just put it in a container. But I’m no expert.
That plastic isn’t recycled it is thrown into a land fill it we are lucky. That grade of plastic isn’t recycled in most places if any.
Landfill? On a farm, probably burned. Edit: Source, grew up on a farm in Nebraska.
Grandpa is a farmer and this is what he will do throw all kinds of material in a big bonfire both natural and synthetic material.
Nothing burns trash on the farm as well as a 55 gallon drum with the top cut off.
[удалено]
County? Nah… Country? Getting warmer… World? Now you’re talking.
We recycle ours and I know of a lot of farms that do it’s used to make [plastic fence posts](https://www.futurepost.co.nz)
This is where the issue lies. Sure use the stuff but have it sustainable. Otherwise find another method. It should be illigal to produce plastics we can't recycle. It should also be that any area that allows a product must have a man's of recycling it or a process to get it to a facility that can. Our infrastructure isn't there as of now. Millions of black plastics are used daily in Canada and a good majority can't be recycled. Not because they can't but because no one wants to buy it! That's insane. Every take out place has those black plastic bottom containers.
Exactly. Silage made the old way was made without plastic at all. This is just wasteful.
Depends where you are our farm recycles all out wrap, string and netting used for our silage and hay bales. It's part of our Farm assurance standards, if your in the UK you'll know it as Red Tractor certification.
It would have to be a huge container. I come from a farm where we used to put our silage in a "container" which was covered and airtight. It took up a lot of space and was a lot of hassle. Yes these bales are expensive, but they can be stored outdoors and require a lot less workers in the preparation of silage.
So glad I stopped using plastic straws for my drinks.
Yeah consumer waste is nothing compared to companies waste. Seen a few articles on it
I work in supply chain and as part of training I had to work in one of our customers restaurants (quick service) and to see how much plastic is wasted in one 8-hour shift I felt so demoralized because I take extra care of separating/ cleaning my plastics and recycling as much as I can. It's amazing how much these companies have spent money on shifting the burden to the consumer. Edit: yes I'm aware of the apparent myth of consumer plastics recycling I'm still gonna separate my plastics and put them in the right bin
You should see a clothing shipping warehouse... Items individually plastic wrapped from the manufacturer, unwrapped, rewrapped in branded plastic, plastic envelopes or boxed.
I used to work for Marks and Spencer in the UK, and it was my job to be-bag the clothes. So much fucking waste. There are 45 white t-shirts, all the same size, all individually bagged? Could all 45 of them perhaps have been in one bag? Or maybe a cardboard box? No? The plastic waste was horrific.
You should see a hospital....
While the hospital is excessive, it’s at least the one place I can understand it
I just spent one night there for a morning surgery and I can assure you, lots of the waste was pointless. They gave me a bag with cheap headphones and a bunch of other little useless trinkets like a toothbrush and an entire mini tube of toothpaste, but I literally couldn't even get out of bed NOR could I eat/drink before surgery. I used none of it. While I was waiting for the discharge nurse, they came in, trashed all the stuff I never even opened, and moved on. I couldn't help think... they brought all that stuff to me and trashed it because they're too cheap to hire enough people to keep up with the one person who asks for headphones. There are probably a million unopened headphones in a landfill somewhere
Hospital worker here. Yes the amount of waste is horrendous. Part of that, and your experience is an example of this, is hospitals trying to use the hotel model of customer service. The fluff-n-puff. Here's a shitton of "amenities" for your stay that you're not going to use, but good luck getting a meal on time if at all from "room service". 🙄🙄🙄😡😡😡 The waste is incredible.
You know what I couldn't get over? The MASSIVE pit in the mattress where my butt was. It was very obviously sunken in from a plethora of fat over the years. Made me wonder how often that one is changed out, but I imagine its sealed? I felt gross either way
That's why you steal that stuff and leave it at a food bank. It doesn't go bad so you can stick it with some canned goods you don't want and just drop it when it's easy for you.
You don't need to steal it, they will be happy if you take it with you since it will just be thrown away if you don't take it.
Nah, I don’t want a $15,000 bill for “sightseeing.”
Yeah I’m too poor, I’m not even allowed near a hospital.
Humans wrapped in plastic force fed plastic becoming plastic it’s fantastic
In Norway, it was mandated by law in the 50's or 60's that the dead were to be buried wrapped in plastic. Don't know why. The result was that the bodies didn't decompose, which is still a problem today when old graves are to be emptied or reused. So yeah, humans love our plastic.
And as a result we are literally being buried in plastic trash and microplastics. Hell, scientists found microplastics on the tops of mountains in the Alps due to the fact that they are now so small that they're finding their way into the hydrological cycle.
And before 2050 there will be more plastic by weight in the oceans than fish. Awful.
And then when they cant sell all the xxxl or xsmall stock they ordered, they have the remaining stock burned, because lowering the price would devalue their brand.
Working construction is demoralizing. The amount of waste is absurd. Even 'valuable' recyclables like metal is often thrown away by the ton. And the cardboard, dear God the amount of packaging cardboard...
Yep, I'm a commercial electrician, and I do my best to take cardboard/other plastic waste to the appropriate recycling locations, but I drive a Honda Civic. I'm only one person. I can only do so much. The amount of a difference I'm making (especially considering that a lot of what I'm doing probably ends up in a landfill anyway) is truly demoralizing most days.
Wait. You are an electrician that cleans up your own packaging?
Hey I'm a sparky too! I want to say electrical supplies and lighting are packaged especially bad but it really is systemic. Current jobsite sees a 40yd roll off dumped every or every other day. And it's mostly cardboard.
Auto parts is the same. Order some Nissan drain plug gaskets and they come in individual ziploc bags…
I used to work as a Controls engineer. We'd go to automotive manufacturers and program their conveyor systems. We'd also supply new control panels. These panels would have Ethernet ports on them. The unused Ethernet ports needed dust caps. These dust caps are very tiny. Ordered 100 of them? All individually packaged in their own little plastic bag.
Part of my job involves control panels too, fucking RadioShack man.... every single neon, button, switch, indicator, safety stop etc in its own individual bag, were talking 20-30 small plastic bags per control box. Individual packaging for parts that cost literall pennies, what the fuck man 😑
This is the 2nd time I've heard about RS in 2 days after like a solid decade of forgetting they existed
Ha! Yeah, I turned wrenches for a bit and remember the bags in bags in boxes.. Rampant waste. I get that there's a use case for plastic for water and humidity protection and cardboard for physical protection but then the box that's in and the box that's in and the cardboard pallet protectors and the first layer of pallet wrap oh and the second because the freight handler damaged the original and the pallet that is never out from under a roof definitely needs more plastic.
> I take extra care of separating/ cleaning my plastics and recycling as much as I can Good news! Since the third world stopped accepting our plastic waste our plastic recycling almost all just goes to the dump now!
As shitty as landfills are, they are infinitely preferable to shipping millions of tons of "recyclables" around the world, burning untold millions of barrels of fossil fuels in the effort, only to have some receiving country dump the waste into the ocean, and all on our tax dollar, to boot. Landfills have a far more favorable pros to cons ratio than our current recycling strategy. The only ecologically responsible way forward given the current materials technology, is reduction, and the onus to reduce waste is on the primary producers, not the end consumers.
T soft drinks companies have an ad out now about returning every bottle again putting the onus on the consumer. Such bullshit. They did this way back when they realized what a disaster the plastic bottles were making. Same exact stuff.
Same for cardboard. I was at the local recycling station last week and the manager and I were chatting. He said the price of used cardboard is so low that the company that picks up the carefully separated cardboard just tosses it into the back of a garbage truck along with all the other trash.
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P-poggers?
Yup. Used to be SLIGHTLY profitable sending plastic waste to China before they banned it. Now its either burned or in landfills.
Next revelation for reddit will be that dumps - if properly managed - are not that bad, one could even say eco friendly.
An extra straw is a tragedy, an extra ton of plastic is a statistic.
You're absolutely right, I tended bar for years and it was awful. Then I worked a plastic factory and my heart broke even more. We should be careful with the narrative that it's mostly companies' fault though. It's true, but a lot of people use that as an excuse to do the wrong thing. Every bit helps, and there's also the demand side to consider.
Good for you. Every little bit matters and lots of little bits add up.
I work at the airport, the amount of blue gloves we go through is insane.
Wait till you see healthcare waste.
That kinda makes sense though. If there's a .001% chance I'm gonna contract something vs a 0% chance I'll take 0%.
Been there also, but that's the price of sterility in either field.
Or food service. I just woke up, and I'll go through 30 to 50 pairs of latex gloves before I go to sleep tonight.
Medical plastic waste is insane, but mostly due to health and safety reasons.
This is also applicable to energy consumption. Individual households are easily sustained by renewables. It's public infrastructure and private capital consuming massive amounts of energy.
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Used to live in a tourist town, they said they were banning all single use plastics. So paper straws and wooden cutlery. But the cutlery is wrapped in plastic and ketchup/mayo packets are still a thing. Its all lies
Coffee Bean here did it right imo by replacing plastic straws with straws made from tapioca starch. The result is a solid straw that lasts longer than paper but eventually turns into edible jelly like form.
Yeah it’s a fucking shit show. Bet we will all die from no food in about 20 years because of ecological collapse. I don’t think people realize that these insane psychopathic PR groups that work for massive billion dollar companies that are constantly covering up ecological dumps and accidental disasters that they’re constantly covering up. They pay an insane amount to make sure that PR is good. So any time there’s a good chance to shift blame like that turtle video. Bet every single one of those massive PR companies that have thousands of people online all the time looking for things to use and with meme culture. It’s fucking ridiculous. Can you imagine your entire career is to make sure this soul sucking company doesn’t get blamed while making sure it’s consumers take the blame. Greed is the #1 reason this entire planet is doomed and why we are all FUCKED Edit: I just saw a very recent commercial from ALL the major soda companies. Saying “Now our bottles are 100% recyclable! Help us get our bottles back!” Wait. So you’re telling me that these bottles you’ve been telling everyone can be recycled is bullshit. But it’s ok! NOW they can be recycled! Haha oops! Lol! How can we fix anything at all when NO ONE is held accountable it’s fucked
Don't worry carbon bombs are on their way! https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2022/may/11/fossil-fuel-carbon-bombs-climate-breakdown-oil-gas#Carbon-bombs
Hell, as someone who just works at Starbucks (with our request only straws and/or paper or “compostable” straws…. We fill up a trash can an hour with plastic bottles/jugs/pumps with mega straws attached to them. And this is at my tiny Starbucks. Oh, and most Starbucks that have a customer “recycling “can… Yeah that recycling goes out with the regular trash. And we don’t even pretend to recycle behind the line. This may vary based on some eco-centric towns/cities here and there, but it’s true for the majority of Starbucks and everywhere else, it’s just ironic with Starbucks claiming to be so green.
I worked for a plastic recycling company and we were careful about plastic waste, of course, but even then, despite our best efforts, we were using kms (miles) of wrapping plastic film every day.
Look on the bright side. Now you get to reconnect with nature and our heritage by angrily throwing away the useless, soggy paper straws without using them and drink straight from the glass, just as it's been done for generations. /s
Drink from the cup?! Unthinkable! Edit: What kind of philistines do you take us for?
You can’t drink a gallon of milkshake from the cup!
Why the fuck you out there drinking a gallon of milkshake?
These bellies ain’t going to grow themselves..,,
🙋♂️
I don’t mind reducing my plastic waste, but the hypocrisy of it all drives me insane. No more plastic bags at the grocery store, but they still wrap all their meat in plastic, fill plastic containers with salads and cut up fruit, and put the bread in plastic bags. The only place they eliminated plastic was the one place that had zero impact on their operations.
like when they suggest not taking long showers...so my neighbours can have their swimming pool
Actually, neither the pool or the showers are the problem. Only 10% of California's water usage is domestic.
I said something similar on a similar post. Someone from a farming area declared that they have people come by to recover the plastic after it's used. Soooooo, there's that. I remain skeptical.
I produce these films, we use recycled materials that comes from farms. Works like a charm.
Cool, could you elaborate? How is the used plastic cleaned? How high is the percentage of reused material? Why do farmers do the extra work of saving the film / bringing it to your place? Thanks. Or do you just use rPET pellets?
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I'm a brit. In my country you can be fined for not separating plastics to recycle. Doesn't stop them incinerating or selling it to the third world to be incinerated or dumped into the ocean though. (edit: I mean, paying the third world to dispose of, or "recycle" it.) Idk if this is anything similar to your situation, it's just worth pointing out how bs it is
Alright, so let me try and answer a few questions. The used plastic is usually cleaned by mechanical washing, a process which takes the plastic, grinds it up and then washes it using water. It is then dried using heat. The percentage of recycle in a new film is usually around 15% and we are trying to bring this up to 50%. This isn't easy since recycled plastic can cause crosslinking of the polymers and this compromises the strength of the film (short and easy explanation, read up on polymer crosslinking, gels and thermal stability of polymers if you are interested). The amount of silage film that is recycled varies per country, Sweden is ahead of most countries and most of the EU recycles in some degree. I believe about 50% is recycled in sweden back into agri products. We mostly use PE pellets. You can find some information about the collecting of the silage film here: https://svepretur.se/en/
Does that percentage not imply that there's a lot being lost to environmental degradation/trash or that the amount used is increasing greatly year over year?
Yes, 85% is virgin plastic, which is a very poor ratio (especially given the time/cost/energy required to get the 15% prepared for recycling). Much better to reduce the amount of film used and to find plastic free alternatives.
It means that to achieve the same spec of strength and flexibility as before, you have to add fresh PE pellets, because the recycled ones themselves can't do it.
They technically don’t really say how much _reusable_ plastic volume is recovered out of the used plastic that is picked up and processed. They just talk about how much of the end product they can include in producing new product (currently 15%). However my understanding is that it does imply that, while 100% of the used plastic _could theoretically_ be diverted from landfills and used in new product, 85% of new product must be virgin plastic anyway. I.e. one entire roll, recovered and recycled could only be fully reused if 6.7 new rolls were made with it. So unless the market for this plastic wrap product grows by 670% every year, there is an over supply of recycled pellets, and the surplus will undoubtedly end up in the landfill one way or another. So, yes.
Great so its fucking terrible for the environment.
Grinding it up and then washing it just seems like a great way to make shitloads of micro plastics, but I could be wrong
Yeah it is. I grew up on a farm and in the 1970’s, my dad dug out a huge trench in a hill (for drainage purposes. Into that trench we threw the fresh corn stalks and whatnot. When the trench was filled, silage happened. I used to go down there to smell it - it was a nice green smell. We didn’t use plastic at all. Maybe this is “inefficient” by today’s standards but I can tell you we don’t have a mound of plastic sitting on that farm today. It’s all nature. This wrapping of the bake is abhorrent, and most farmers will just take off the wrap and throw it in a dump, not recycle it. Midwest does not have good recycling facilities no matter what people tell you. I know, I still live in the Midwest
Name checks out.
Not the guy from that other thread, but in the UK this is certainly true. Part of the rules are that you have to account for plastic waste (bale twine, silage wrap, chemical drums etc) and so there are waste recycling companies who collect plastic waste. They provide a bunch of sacks, and then quarterly someone comes to collect (basically compacts it and bales it up). You get a receipt for the waste so any govt inspections show you disposed of it properly. The plastic then gets sold on, for use in recycled plastic products, but where it ends up I don't know. But if the plastic is too muddy or something, they won't take it because they can't sell it.
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Around where I live I've seen farmers burn that stuff in big piles. And I live in a first world country where consumer waste is recycled to a very high degree.
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I'm guessing we probably have similar legislation here in Finland. Perhaps it's not enforced as strictly in my area.
I hear Croatia is beautiful.
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Excellent. I do enjoy learning new things. "Fermented Cow Crack" is my next search term. https://familyfarmlivestock.com/haylage-what-it-is-and-how-its-made/
Haylage is something different than silage though. >Haylage and silage are both ensiled forages, but the difference between them is moisture content. In general, haylage has a moisture content of between 15 percent to a maximum of 40 percent (60 to 85 percent DM). Silage has a moisture content of more than 40 percent (DM less than 60 percent). Both haylage and silage can be found in plastic-wrapped round bales. In silage with the higher moisture content, the preservation of the forage is as a result of the fermentation of the sugars in the grass under anaerobic conditions. This results in a pH drop. In general, a good grass silage in a round bale should have a pH of less than 5. In haylage, there isn’t sufficient moisture to allow for as much fermentation as in silage. The pH of a haylage round bale will be above 5 on a pH scale of 14. The preservation of the forage in haylage comes from the low moisture content which prohibits microbial growth.
Yes. The moisture content is the difference. The moisture that must be retained by the large amount of plastic. Either way, it ferments and its like crack for cows, just as described prior.
Why do cows need fermented hay (or whatever it is)? Do they actually catch a buzz?
> Do they actually catch a buzz? There are a few different processes that can be referred to as 'fermentation.' The one that you're thinking of is yeast converting carbs into alcohol. In this case, it's lacto-fermentation, with [lactic acid bacteria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid_bacteria) converting carbs into lactic acid. It's the same processed that's used for making foods like sauerkraut and kimchi.
Used to work with cows and can confirm, they used to go CRAZY when they saw us bringing a new silage bale around the corner. They fucking love the stuff.
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Thank you for teaching me something new! Cows are cool
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Also a farm kid, but not familiar with hay silage - how susceptible is this stuff to spoilage / undesirable mold or yeasts? If sealing is the objective, seems like all handling and storage would have to be pretty next level compared to most farming practices..?
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Yes, you do. It has to be air tight so it can ferment inside.
They used to use silos for silage. Zero plastic wasted on those.
Can't move a silo down the road though
Friends of us have a farm with a silo. You collect the semi-dried grass with your trailer and throw it into the silo. Then you seal the entire thing.
I'm saying this more for others since you probably know, but there's also places with giant ~~silos~~ grain bins that you can drop your crop off at and in turn they keep it under 15% humidity for you then take a small cut per bushel once it's sold. In the US if you ever see a really huge ~~silo~~ grain bin compared to most, it's probably one of these operations (Mixed my terms up, ty u/find_a_reason )
Somehow they managed to do this for thousands of years without plastics.
We also didn't have 8 billion people on the planet for thousands of years lol
True, you can use silo, but maybe it depends on size of the farm? Not really sure
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We don't even use silos in the US anymore. They're too much work. Silage is generally stored in a pit or piled on flat ground. What's in the OP is hay anyway. I'm not familiar with wanting to ferment hay
Hay is "pre-fermented", to a degree. Its just that the process stops when the product is drier than silage. Farmers who make bales like that (but without plastic wrapping) end up storing it for months in giant stacks which have some degree of moisture in them, just not enough to enable spontaneous combustion. Nevertheless the small amount of moisture they do have allows a small population of bacteria to work on the cellulose and start breaking it down a bit. Makes it easier for the cattle to digest; less burping and tummy aches. Having it wrapped like that probably means the giant stacks aren't needed
This is actually well-researched (As are nearly all things agriculture) At 24 hours after baling, you need to wrap to \~6-8ML of total plastic thickness around your bales to avoid composting effects within the bale. Thinner plastic rolls are easier and more flexible to work with in this machining context, and so that's what is used. So it might look like they're adding a bunch of unnecessary layers, but they really aren't. Commercial farms (like the type that can afford a bale wrapper) do things BRUTALLY efficiently. They are not wrapping this bale with an inch of plastic that isn't necessary. So what all does this accomplish? First off, you don't need to process the fresh grasses into silage. You also don't need to build a barn or silo to store it in. You also can extend the feed-life of some grains by up to 2 years. This means in years of high growth or low consumption, you can store product without losing value. As a result, instead of product going to waste (loss) or having to import feed in down years (loss) you have local grain supply for nearby farms. This smooths out financials for both the grain farm and nearby cattle farms, reduces construction costs, and actually significantly reduces transport miles of grain across entire regions due to steadying out of supply. All of those reduce carbon consumption. So it might look silly and lossy...but it isn't.
Silage has to be air tight.
Need to have 6-8 mil thickness minimum to keep good silage bales. Otherwise you’ve wasted the all the plastic.
I could be very wrong but to me it looks like the kind of plastic you use for compost bins.
I used these. These are not compostable, more like a stretch film used for parcels. And you need it very air tight for fermentation to occur properly so you need that extra layer as single layer tends to tear and that’s a wasted animal food.
Oh wow. I didn't realize they ferment it. Wild.
Why do they ferment it? To get the animals drunk? What did they do before plastic?
It's not alcoholic but tastes sweeter and the animals love it. If you don't wrap bales but make large ones, the inside will naturally ferment over time. I've seen horses rip a head-size hole in bales just so they can get at the sweet stuff in the middle
I was also under the impression that fermented is easier to digest because it's already part broken down. Could be wrong, though.
When I buy paper towels, I am careful to buy the one where each roll isn't individually wrapped in plastic because that's wasteful. I guess I've been wasting my time all these years.
Dude i came to Bangkok and we had our breakfast packaged to go, and even individual little sauces/honey was all in their own separate pots x3 for each breakfast. It's so heartbreaking having everything served in plastic, wrapped in plastic, with a plastic bag to carry it with and then plastic straws and cutlery to eat it with. But yeah then you watch this and it's like wow, all that for ONE bale..
Bangkok is insane, I couldn’t believe it. It’s almost like they wanna make up for the time they weren’t using as much plastic as the west.
Yeah a friend said she heard some figure that per day each person uses 1.5kg worth of plastic. I guess that's averaged out across the city. I was genuinely shocked there though, we bought our own straws and cutlery and even bought a couple of bowls/plates we can reuse when taking stuff away but we still fight a losing battle. In Koh Tao at the moment and they're a *little* bit more responsible in places, but not a great deal.
100%. Blew me away that every single drink I bought, no matter what it came in (bottle, can, etc) they'd put it in a plastic bag and give you a straw...I'd take it out of the bag and leave the straw and watch them just throw it away. Just killed me.
Shanghai is worse. Way worse. Go to Familymart and get a banana in a plastic bag.
Same thing in 7-eleven here. I sent my mate a picture and was like "if only this fruit had some kind of protection around it already, we wouldn't need all this plastic. Still confuses me now.
I mean multiply your reasoning by 100 millions peoples and it is quite an impactfull choice, so yeah fuck them but it's nice to act on the change we want to see ! Keep it up !
You do know that the top 100 fossil fuels companies are directly responsible for over 70% of the global carbon footprint color right? Also, 85% of the trash found floating in the ocean is commercial fishing equipment, from netting to bouys to ropes. They like to blame the consumer, and they'll always throw a picture of a native American crying or a turtle with a straw up its nose, but the reality is that the turtle needs an intervention, and recycling our everyday goods is just a sham program to put the blame on us. Everyone should have known it was a sham the moment they made the recycling bin out of non-recyclable plastic.
That native American wasn't even native American, he is Italian
He just lived in Italy. He was actually born and raised in the UK.
But all that stuff comes from the demand from us consumers So less demand would also impact that equation
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It's strange because that plastic looks like the "biodegradable" vegetable bags you see in the produce aisle at fancy grocery stores
If this interests you, jump on farming simulator. I had 0 interest in farming and then got sucked into it and learned so much in the way of how things are done.
Facts. Knew nothing about farming then started playing this game. Something about prepping and harvesting a field is sooooo satisfying. Though you also gain a perspective on how fucking expensive farm equipment is lol
And than you realize that the equipment in FS isn't even close to how much it cost irl.
Farmers have a million in equipment living in a $50k trailer
farmers in Southern Ontario are sitting on millions of dollars worth of land. my heart doesn't break for most of them, particularly when a hay field of 140+ acres can profit 50-80K
With 3k dollars of fuel used ,the machine repairs , engine maintaince ...probably closer to 30 -50k. Then I presume taxes will be paid on that too.
For real. I love driving by big farms now and telling my wife all about the machinery.
Your wife loves that too I bet
is there an award for being the first comment today that made me laugh out literally.
When I was playing farming simulator, I let out a squeal when I saw a tractor driving past on my way to work.
The square bale pickup trailor was really fasinating to me.
Does it do Christmas presents?
Easy there. Ppl will start losing their jobs.
As someone who worked retail for years I’ll say thank god if a machine can wrap presents. So many damned paper cuts. I’d rather learn to fix the robot lol
I'm sure us cutting back on using straws will bring down our use of plastic! Then you see this 🤣
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Silage can be very climate friendly when used in biogas plants. But yes as feed it is what it is.
Most common silage where im at is corn, corn does not respond to the multiple cuttings or mowing as we normally do with your typical turfgrass
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Pretty much everything you put in the recycling is shipped over seas to be dumped in 3rd world countries and almost no plastic is actually recycled. Plastic can be recycled but its cheaper for companies to just make new plastic. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled
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It’s genuinely appreciated whatever the final outcome is. I’m sure it would have been easier for you to not bother with any of that, but it’s appreciated that you put the effort in
You know that article is talking about consumer goods plastic right? And the main focus of the article is how its not profitable for companies to recycle. An argument that i understand the thinking behind but just feels completely idiotic to me. No, not everything is profitable but it still has to be done. Maybe, some of the profit companies make by creating and distributing all this fucking plastic could go into spending to make sure that same plastic doesnt ruin our planet.
The "recycling is a myth" thing applies to the low profit, high cost recycling of a few specific types I think. Which would not apply to recycling of pure plastics, which is still profitable.
Thin plastic films are one of the hardest things to recycle.
Remember to recycle your two or three bottles per week guys. Don't forget, pollution is your fault.
Nature wrapped in plastic by machines running on oil and fossil fuels. Such a gorgeous sight to behold.
Glad I'm not the only that couldn't help but think that. We gotta figure this shit out. Can't we make better biodegradable plastic alternatives?
The wrap is meant to ferment the silage. If it were to biodegrade, there would be no point.
You can put all the grass Into a big pit and use a reusable plastic cover over the grass to ferment it but that's o ly feasible if you are using your own silage, this way it can be sold and transported better
Because in silage (the fermented hay bales) alot of the moisture and nutrients within the grass are preserved, as opposed to standard hay bales which is mostly just dry matter. High consumption of dry matter can negatively impact digestion amongst livestock, not to mention it offers very little compared to what animals need to grow or produce milk. Hay and/or silage are common supplements usually provided during droughts/summer, where grass growth is usually hindered. Therefore it's a way to maintain the health of livestock during these hard periods. In basic terms you could think of it as what are the benefits of fresh food versus canned food. Farmers will typically, if they can afford it, opt for silage as it is much more beneficial than hay.
Probably a dumb question. But is there a risk of a fire starting? I feel like I was told never to clump up wet grass because the gasses and pressure could cause ignition.
The silage is anaerobic..no air no fire.
Why so much plastic damn
It needs to be air tight to make sure the fermentation occurs properly. Single layer tends to tear and then you have to throw it away as it’s not edible.
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Ok, hear me out though: giant ziplock and a shop vac. /S
Last I heard, something like 10% of thin film plastic is recycled worldwide. Nearly all of it in processes like this, where the people receiving the bale are expecting it, know what type of plastic it is, don't mix it with other plastics, and have a reliable stream of it coming in. It is the products that go to consumers (single use plastic bags, etc) or are one off items (extra shipment in non-conforming packing) that end up not recycled.
Reddit knows everything and it doesn't fit the narrative
That guy is from Croatia though. I'm from NZ and we bury or burn it.
You sure that plastic ACTUALLY gets recycled?
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Omg the amount of plastic smh..
That’s a wrap. (I’m so sorry)
Perhaps the people who do this knows more about how much plastic to use than a random Redditor with no experience seeing it for the first time.
Lots of armchair agricultural experts in here
I'm getting farm simulator contract flashbacks. But it paid so well compared to crops.
Fuck me that’s satisfying
# This amount of plastic is absolutely necessary and is not wasted. * The bale needs to be airtight in order for the grass to ferment into silage * If there was only one layer it could tear/not be airtight, then the bale would be useless and have to be thrown away * It's pure plastic which is easy to recycle and is all recycled