@Worth, your comments about the iron pans made me think of my old Caprice Classic - I had my routes planned so I could climb one hill on the gas and then coast and travel on momentum alone for the rest of the trip.
@Cole, I wonder if chemical ferts would react with plastics.
It really is a shame the recycling progress has been crumbling.
In the end, waste to energy is probably going to be what happens - hopefully with full carbon capture. There really isn't an effective way to clean and separate all the different plastics out there so that they can be reused.
And it's really hard to find alternatives to plastic for certain things. I told myself to cut down on plastic. I think a week went by when I had extra produce and no produce bags. Finally I went out and bought a box. I told a friend how I'd broken down and bought them, and she said, the 8 lb produce bag drives the economy. In other words, they don't have a substitute either, and there is no choice but to continue. Or waste food... oh wait, that's a problem too then.