If we are trying to get rid of carbon, why is it worse to put plastic in landfill than recycle it?

Question

Wouldn’t it be better to bury as much of it deep underground as possible and seal it off?

edit – I should add that I do reuse and recycle, and I use as little plastic as I can afford to in the first place. I am just curious about this aspect

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

Landfills basically aren’t “buried;” most of the time, the trash is basically left to decompose over time in relatively open air (or only lightly buried), meaning the CO2 still gets into the atmosphere.

Recycling keeps the carbon locked up in the plastic, which is (arguably) preferable to letting it be emitted into the atmosphere.