Let's be honest about the plastic in the oceans: It is not first world countries causing most of the problem. Ships do drop their trash in the ocean, that needs to stop, and we're all guilty to some degree, but if you want to stop the worst of the pollution you have to go to the Far East, Latin America, and Africa.
Fish are eating lots of plastic
101–110 of 119 posts
Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic
#102I really wish plastics were recycled/reused a lot more, because they are such ideal materials --- being rather unreactive, flexible, resilient, and (in the case of thermoplastics, which make up the bulk of this waste) easily reprocessed. Although the throwaway culture and low cost means that a lot of it doesn't, I wonder if in the future, if the prices go up in following petroleum trends, "mining" for plastics would…
I really wish there was a return to cafeteria-style plates and cutlery for food courts. I know that sounds weird but I feel immensely guilty throwing away plastic and styrofoam every day just to have a bit of lunch, but it's not like you can show up to a restaurant and say "here, use my tupperware for my to go order." There's no middle ground in America between bringing lunch from home every day so it's in reusable c…
> I know that sounds weird but I feel immensely guilty throwing away plastic and styrofoam every day just to have a bit of lunch,
That doesn't sound weird at all. Seems perfectly normal to me.
> but it's not like you can show up to a restaurant and say "here, use my tupperware for my to go order."
Have you ever tried it? You might be surprised, especially for a to go order. It works at coffee shops. If they don't want to do it they might throw some health-code BS at you and you can add it to your list of places to boycott, if you wish.
> There's no middle ground in America between bringing lunch from home every day so it's in reusable containers and throw away packaging for anything that's not immediately consumed on premises.
My office's lunch room also has plastic spoons and forks. On the rare occasion that I haven't been able to track down metal silverware I've washed and reused the plastic multiple times.
Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic
#103I recently began bodybuilding and have been relying on canned tuna for protein. I eat other sources, but eat at least 1 to 2 cans daily. Is the plastic worse than the mercury? What would be a healthy, affordable, and easy to prepare (this is very important) alternative? Also, is canned tuna a US thing? How often do you consume canned tuna?
You should probably avoid eating that much tuna because of the mercury anyway. https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mroussell5.htm
In addition to whey protein, brown rice protein, pea protein or hemp protein work great too.
Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic
#104Let's be honest about the plastic in the oceans: It is not first world countries causing most of the problem. Ships do drop their trash in the ocean, that needs to stop, and we're all guilty to some degree, but if you want to stop the worst of the pollution you have to go to the Far East, Latin America, and Africa.
Actually that's not correct. The first world consumer society demands and consumes a lot of products - products made with plastic, packed in plastic, handed out in plastic bags, bottled in plastic, etc.
We buy, then toss (trash bin, recycle bin, or on the ground) the packaging and even old/broken bits we no longer need.
Certainly the developing world needs some education and behavior changes to limit their impact, but we have much responsibility ourselves.
And our trash/recycling is often shipped to their lands - then stored, dumped, or otherwise "recycled" poorly. Weather events or just poor planning allow some of that waste to end up in water systems.
Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
True, but it's just stupid, fish are animals.
I know you're being flippant, but we'd lose a lot of what makes language beautiful if we beat the looseness and poetry out of conversational exchanges. Pendatic assertions often miss the fact that words drift in an ever-shifting consensus.
No it's more than that; perhaps you haven't discussed with some people, but a great many people actually do believe fish are not animals. It's not mere semantics, they don't actually consider them animals at all, as if animal, plant, and fish are all different categories. Don't dismiss as pedantry what is actually a very interesting topic.
Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really wish there was a return to cafeteria-style plates and cutlery for food courts. I know that sounds weird but I feel immensely guilty throwing away plastic and styrofoam every day just to have a bit of lunch, but it's not like you can show up to a restaurant and say "here, use my tupperware for my to go order." There's no middle ground in America between bringing lunch from home every day so it's in reusable c…
> I know that sounds weird but I feel immensely guilty throwing away plastic and styrofoam every day just to have a bit of lunch, That doesn't sound weird at all. Seems perfectly normal to me. > but it's not like you can show up to a restaurant and say "here, use my tupperware for my to go order." Have you ever tried it? You might be surprised, especially for a to go order. It works at coffee shops. If they don't wan…
>Have you ever tried it? You might be surprised, especially for a to go order. It works at coffee shops. If they don't want to do it they might throw some health-code BS at you and you can add it to your list of places to boycott, if you wish.
Actually I'm with them that there's no guarantee my tupperware has been properly sanitized, nor do I trust the general public to sanitize theirs when you have so many people who will gladly double dip into communal foods.
Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
OK, I'll bite. Suppose I wanted to avoid that. I could carry my trash out on the street, walk past three buildings and dump it in the bin near the bus stop instead of in the container behind the house. What is to stop me? The bus stop is that close because people live densely here. Which means that there are many people per building, who collectively decide what size of garbage container to get and pay for it. I'd ha…
I don't understand. If this 7€ per bin is something effectively included with rent, and something you're paying for anyway , then how would it discourage landfill waste? I thought the entire point was to add a cost to trash vs. recyclables.
You don't have to put recyclables into the container that costs anything (more depending on size). Depending on the economics, the garbage company will also give you other containers, free of charge, such as "paper only" and "compostable stuff only". Separate well enough and you end up with a small and cheap container after a little while.
Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I know that sounds weird but I feel immensely guilty throwing away plastic and styrofoam every day just to have a bit of lunch, That doesn't sound weird at all. Seems perfectly normal to me. > but it's not like you can show up to a restaurant and say "here, use my tupperware for my to go order." Have you ever tried it? You might be surprised, especially for a to go order. It works at coffee shops. If they don't wan…
>Have you ever tried it? You might be surprised, especially for a to go order. It works at coffee shops. If they don't want to do it they might throw some health-code BS at you and you can add it to your list of places to boycott, if you wish. Actually I'm with them that there's no guarantee my tupperware has been properly sanitized, nor do I trust the general public to sanitize theirs when you have so many people wh…
That's fair but their serving utensils don't need to make any contact with your tupperware. As long as it looks clean enough to sit on their counter while they convey the food into it, that should be sufficient right?
EDIT: The "health-code BS" bit is from my experience once, requesting a restaurant to refill my water bottle when I was leaving. Unless they're dipping a water hose into my bottle to fill it, thus bringing water in my bottle into contact with their hose, I fail to see the health issue.
Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic
#109I have a plan, but it's taking me a bit longer than I'd hoped: http://phoenixbureau.github.io/ReGPGP/ > The only way to clean up such a huge mess is to create a system that mimics the way life would do it. Really, if something could eat plastic there wouldn't be quite such a bad problem. It is because no living creature can digest plastic that it stays around and accumulates. So the solution is to create a kind of ar…
That's called a bacterium. Why not create an actual bacterium to break plastic down like everything else in the environment? It's not really that hard--high school students have done it before. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-plastic-eati... Bonus points if you can make the bacterium specific to particular kinds of plastic.
Releasing GMOs into the ambient environment would be grotesquely irresponsible.
But yeah, the design is kinda like a scaled-up distributed bacterium. Bio-mimetic FTW!
Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic
#110Just proves how dumb they are. Plastic doesn't have any calories or hedonistic value at all really.