AirTags essential to finding of Houston’s plastic recycling fraud

Apple uses a robot named Daisy, a highly advanced robot, to disassemble old iPhones.
AirTags helped a Houston resident who was suspicious of the city’s “all plastic accepted recycling program” to find out where the plastic waste ended up. Brandy Deason began to doubt the city’s recycling program for plastics, even though she recycles her packaging regularly. Houston’s plastic recycling program boasted that it could accept types of plastics that aren’t usually recyclable. She bought a set AirTags to track the plastic recycling. Nearly all of the bags tracked went to a nearby company called Wright Waste Management. The company has failed three fire safety inspections and is not authorized to store plastic waste. CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy called Deason “the James Bond” of plastic recycling for her initiative. Aerial footage revealed that the facility contained large piles of plastic trash up to 10 feet tall. Deason thought it was “kind of odd” that the company would store the non-recyclable plastic waste. She contacted Houston’s director of solid waste management Mark Wilfalk to inquire about the discrepancy. Wilfalk acknowledged that “it is not the most attractive-looking site” when shown the drone footage. He promised Deason that he would investigate the problems which caused Wright Waste Management’s failure to pass the fire inspections. Wilfalk acknowledged later that the city collected 250 tons of plastics since the end 2022. He said that none of the plastic had been recycled yet. He admitted that they would be stockpiling it for the time being. “We’re going to see what happens.” Apple, on the other hand, has been a leader in the industry when it comes to reducing its plastic use. Apple uses paper packaging and metal instead of plastic for its computer range. Some of its products, such as AirPods earbuds, are made from plastic. It has invested in robots to help recycle older Apple products. Houston is still waiting for the promised sorting facility, where the recycling will be sorted. The company that owns the sorting facility claims to have developed a way to make recyclable pellets from plastic waste. Only a fraction can be turned into new plastic. Most of these pellets will be melted down and made into fuel, which is then burned. This increases carbon emissions. Rob Bonta, California’s Attorney General, has been investigating the claims made by ExxonMobil and Cyclix regarding plastic recycling. He has described Cyclix’s plastic recycling claims as largely fiction.