Why not levy a very substantial tax on this damaging product - like with do for cigarettes? Regulate with economic incentives seems usually to be the right solution. Also, if the US could just get to European levels, that would cut US waste by almost half.
Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
141–150 of 460 posts
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#142This is a classic externality problem. We can berate consumers all day long to be more diligent in their recycling, but all that finger wagging is for show meant to distract from the real source of the garbage, the manufacturers. Just like the classic "blame the user" mentality, the users were given an impossibly complex system with barely any incentive to get it right. Nothing about the interface is intuitive or dis…
“The creators of all this garbage do so because it's profitable” Isn’t this rather something that market forces demand, i.e. the consumer choosing the cheapest option? Don’t get me wrong, I completely agree with the rest of what you’re saying, I just think that the businesses aren’t as evil as you portray them to be. In the end, the solution is probably government regulation by subsidizing alternatives and/or a compl…
Easiest solution would be a tax on petroleum as it comes out of the ground. That discourages both plastic and greenhouse gas.
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#143the last paragraph is key. even if we recycled 100% of the plastic it still inevitably leads to pollution (all this talk about sorting is irrelevant!). we need to be using better materials.
It's not helpful to throw up our arms and say nothing can be done just because pollution wasn't eliminated 100%. It is helpful to compare magnitude. If we can reduce pollution by 1% or 10% or 90%... any amount is better than no reduction. If sorting helps 10%, and it takes almost no effort, then it's very relevant.
I agree that better materials is a good idea. Same goes for many other suggestions here, reducing demand, charging producers, new ways to reuse and recycle. It all helps. So don't give up before you start just because it can't be perfect. Nothing's perfect.
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#144-snip, self-censorship for safety-
So because no one recycles in your country, everyone else should adopt your standards and not recycle too?
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
This or a very primitive 4 bit rfid
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#146[deleted]
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#147This is a classic externality problem. We can berate consumers all day long to be more diligent in their recycling, but all that finger wagging is for show meant to distract from the real source of the garbage, the manufacturers. Just like the classic "blame the user" mentality, the users were given an impossibly complex system with barely any incentive to get it right. Nothing about the interface is intuitive or dis…
Why can't it be both a supply and a demand problem?
No actor should be immune to criticism, don't you think?
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#148Perhaps we should start doing something like what Taiwan did with their trash: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/separation-anxiety/ > The trucks only accept trash bags officially sanctioned by the government of Taiwan which come in a distinctive blue color, complete with an official seal. The bags range in price and size, from 3 liters to 120 liters. The most popular bag is 25 liters (similar to a tiny bathroom…
-removed by author-
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#149This is the result of corporate greed combined with the tragedy of the commons. Corporate greed makes the waste, consumers act primary in self-interest and select for short-term cheapness, and politicians don't want to reign or regulate that greed or consumer selfishness.
Re: Plastic recycling is a problem consumers can't solve
#150This is a classic externality problem. We can berate consumers all day long to be more diligent in their recycling, but all that finger wagging is for show meant to distract from the real source of the garbage, the manufacturers. Just like the classic "blame the user" mentality, the users were given an impossibly complex system with barely any incentive to get it right. Nothing about the interface is intuitive or dis…
>If we forced all producers of trash to account for its safe reuse, recycling or disposal as part of the cost of doing business, this problem would disappear quickly. Because here's the thing, the bill always comes due. If we let them skip out on it, then we will be the ones who pay. There's no easy way to do that, as long as we don't have a single planetary government, and as long as we have trade. The producers are…
> There's no easy way to do that
Leading consumer market governments have been using progressive import controls for many decades to do exactly that. It may not be trivial and it may not be free, but this task is no different in principle from how California's CARB forced carmakers worldwide to adopt more stringent NOx emissions standards, or European regulators forced safer food additives to be used worldwide, or the US FDA forced more stringent drug safety standards worldwide.
Even private companies can be pretty good at this, when someone has to pay for the damage: the IIHS is private (it was formed because NHTSA was not doing as good of a job as insurance companies wanted) and effectively dictates car safety standards on a global scale.