-snip, self-censorship for safety-
The entire population of Azerbaijan is less than Los Angeles (The greater LA area at least). The US is huge and our per capita pollution is a lot higher too.
Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
111–120 of 460 posts
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#112[deleted]
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#113It's incredible that corporations are allowed to pump out massive quantities of single use plastic and then we blame the consumer for not recycling it. The idea that the solution is to change the habits of billions of people rather than enforce some rules on a few thousand companies is just crazy.
It's the same with drought conditions in California, asking millions of people who collectively use like 7% of the water supply to sacrifice, with no attention to the small number of agriculture/industry companies using 93% of the water.
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#114It's incredible that corporations are allowed to pump out massive quantities of single use plastic and then we blame the consumer for not recycling it. The idea that the solution is to change the habits of billions of people rather than enforce some rules on a few thousand companies is just crazy.
>The idea that the solution is to change the habits of billions of people rather than enforce some rules on a few thousand companies is just crazy.
It's an idea that those companies themselves invented and promulgated. https://web.archive.org/web/20050401192355/http://www.altern... (edit: archive to unbreak formatting)
As always, follow the money.
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#115Startup I will never get around to: A store which sells only bulk and fresh food, and durable containers: mesh bags, Mason jars, glass bottles. Every container, dispenser, and display has a scale, and unlocks with a nearfield chip. Enter the store, tap phone or insert chip card, get a card. Fill up your cart, stick the card back into the slot, get charged, done. One customer service kiosk for buying back clean contai…
There's a store in Berlin selling food without packaging: https://original-unverpackt.de/
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. In addition to regulation on what is okay packaging, if producers somehow had more responsibility for where the end waste goes, it would encourage a closed system It's in corporations interest to shift the responsibility entirely in the consumer http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-per...
Don't regulate packaging, put a Pigouvian Tax on it. It's far better.
Why is that? A tax is slower and exempts the wealthy while inflicting the costs onto the poor.
Regulation is cheaper, better, fairer and faster at getting policy implemented than a technical tax, and doesn't have the behavioral issues that abound when telling people they are "taxed" for doing something.
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's always cheaper to make new packaging than recycle old one. It's extremely hard to make any sort of business out of recycling old material. Like you said, reusing would help - but glass has the issue of being very heavy so you're burning more fuel to move it around, while it only takes a drop of oil to make a new plastic bottle that weighs 1/20 of an equivalent glass one. I'd love to see all drinks being sold exc…
My college room mates and I were still doing this with Miller High Life bottles as late as 2003-2004. If you collected a dozen cases you'd have enough returnables for a free case of beer!
Similar for the plastic beer pitchers at UW-Madison's terrace. You'd pay like a $1 deposit on the pitcher, if you bring the pitcher back, you get the dollar. Drunk kids or the indifferent would leave their plastic pitcher and some enterprising person would come by pick it up and return it for cash. There is a lake nearby, so it's important these didn't make it in the lake.
The deposit system seemed to be pretty effective. Folks took an active role.
Maybe there are modern day systems that could be developed. I wonder if people would subscribe to a Uber/UPS like system for fluids like beer, soda, milk, yogurt or water? Comes in sterilized glass bottles using an electric vehicle. I suppose it could be reusable plastic, but for folks paying a premium, glass would be nice. Something like $50 month for a couple cases of beer, going up in price as you order more.
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#118I teach college and I see students throwing their empty recyclable bottles into the trash nearly every day when the recycling bin is literally right next to it.
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's obvious trash? I look at the labeling on recycling and compost cans in my area and I honestly have no clue what I can recycle and what I can't. My choices are to throw away potential recyclables or recycle trash. People aren't morons, you've just built a bad system. And to clarify, I'm talking about recycling bins in fast food restaurants and grocery store delis. I've got a pile of used paper and plastic that…
There's ambiguous stuff to be sure. But I'm talking about people who throw food scraps, furniture, car tires, ash, bbq coals, construction debris, etc in the recycling. Yes, I've seen all of those things go into the recycling bins and more.
Tricky. The first three should be recyclable: good scraps can be composted, timber and metal in furniture can be recycled, and car tyres can be recycled.
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now you doubled CO2 emissions of your fleet and incentivize people to litter or dump in public trash cans. A better solution would be human or robotic waste sorting at the dump, or clean incineration.
I have to counter regarding incentives with my own annecdote. I was buying a lot of sparkling water and got tired of collecting and recycling the empties. I bought a popular carbonating unit. I suspect culture will have a huge impact on how well the solution works. I would love robotic waste sorting, I hope someone is working on that!
Perhaps a color coding for different materials would make consumer and robotic sorting simpler.