decay

The first problem is that there are thousands of different plastics, each with its own composition and characteristics. They all include different chemical additives and colorants that cannot be recycled together, making it impossible to sort the trillions of pieces of plastics into separate types for processing.

Consider these two people: One flies weekly for work; the other lives in a studio apartment and walks to the office every day. On the surface, it’s clear here who has the bigger carbon footprint. Flying is notoriously awful, emissions-wise, and when you compare a weekly flight to the energy use of a small home and the emissions of a daily walking commute, the outcome is obvious.

But here’s a wrinkle: The weekly flier is a climate scientist who travels around the world teaching about the dangers of climate change. The second person works for a marketing agency, making ads for an oil company. So who is contributing more to the climate emergency, really?