tiny lemmy 

Toxic tofu? How plastic waste from the west fuels food factories in Indonesia

c/world 路 u/HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 路 133 points

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Plastic waste from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, the US and Britain is being used to fuel tofu production in Indonesia, the Guardian has learned.

Five factory owners in an industrial village in East Java, and one environmental organisation told the Guardian that imported plastic is burned daily to fuel furnaces in factories that produce tofu, prompting concern about serious health impacts.

Each day about 60 tofu factories in Tropodo fire up their boilers and fryers and then feed them with a combination of plastic waste, wood and coconut husks, producing about 60 tonnes of tofu that is distributed in the region, including to Indonesia鈥檚 second-largest city Surabaya. The tofu is not sold outside Indonesia.

Comments

u/BCsven@lemmy.ca 路 8 points

Yeah plastic fuel pellets in a proper incinerator is way different than open burning

u/P1nkman@lemmy.world 路 2 points

Whenever I have a bonfire, I burn all my plastics. The trick is to pee around the bonfire before burning it. That's the proper way to do it. ^/s^

u/rimu@piefed.social 路 25 points

Video tour of plastic burning tofu factorys here https://youtu.be/WPyRAcdZHDo

It's hardcore

u/tiredofsametab@fedia.io 路 10 points

I wonder what the Japanese source is. I thought we recycled PET and burnt all the rest for power here. I guess not.

u/ryannathans@aussie.zone 路 4 points

At least there won't be microplastics released to the environment if all the plastic is incinerated properly

u/wondrous_strange@lemmy.world 路 3 points

Wait till you hear about what they put inside the dead animals and their secretions you eat. Also fresh produce, water, air, soil.

Everything humans ever touched and everything around it is contaminated

Edit typo