31–40 of 150 posts
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God forbid I use a straw, though.
Should modern countries stop making improvements until the developing ones catch up? We still consume far more than those countries, meaning how we manage resources can cause large swings.
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Is that landfill claim a bit of a strawman (pardon the pun)? I've seen little to nothing about it being the result of landfills, and everything about it being a result of the culture of disposable plastics. We're all to blame for disposable plastics.
I'm not sure how popular that claim is, but I've heard it multiple times. Especially as part of the eco-protective initiatives. I was able to find this example[1]: "Even if you live hundreds of miles from the coast, the plastic you throw away could make its way into the sea. Once in the ocean, plastic decomposes very slowly, breaking down in to tiny pieces known as micro plastics that can be incredibly damaging to se…
The single raindrop never feels responsible for the flood. Whether it's CO2, plastics, CFCs, etc, our individual contributions might be tiny in the grand scheme of things, but together make a difference. The best thing we can do is change the culture of single-use disposables and export that to other nations.
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God forbid I use a straw, though.
Explain the inconvenience you're experiencing because you can't get a straw? It's a step forward, a small one at that, but it's progress. I don't understand those complaining - they usually fall back to people with disabilities, and yet establishments will still have straws on-hand for those folks.
Straws are a trivial step forward, and I don't think we shouldn't feel better because of it and think we've done something meaningful.
Straw bans are a particularly easy topic to make fun of, because of some internet analysis that Starbucks' solution uses more plastic than using straws.
I'm curious. Quotes from the article: -- “It happens pretty much all the time if there is a strong rainfall or a storm,” The phenomenon is not confined to the Dominican Republic, he said, and can be seen in many developing nations with a coastline. “Everybody uses the rivers and the beaches as dump sites.” -- So we're being told that ocean's plastic garbage patch is somehow made out of the contents of landfills aroun…
86% of the oceans plastic comes from Asia[1]. [1] https://www.theoceancleanup.com/sources/
What we can do is focus on the cleanliness of our local communities as that is the only place where we can have an effect.
But on the global scale, unless if we manage to strongarm Asia into behaving, it's borderline meaningless.
My wife and I were traveling in Borneo a few years back. They have "water villages" there where all the houses are built on stilts in shallow water. You could not see the shore because it was completely covered in a layer of garbage. It was like living on top of a landfill. At first I thought it was garbage thrown out by the villagers, but it's not. It was garbage that washes in on the tide. Every now and then the vi…
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Most of that garbage is usually from locales which lack a recyling infrastructure as well as a recycling culture. If you read the article they mention locals use beaches and streams as personal dumping grounds. So if by west you mean from the local west indies, you’re right.
Plastic recycling isn't. It's just a scheme to move the waste somewhere else (China) and make Westerners feel good about not having to change their wasteful lifestyles. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17368168
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God forbid I use a straw, though.
Explain the inconvenience you're experiencing because you can't get a straw? It's a step forward, a small one at that, but it's progress. I don't understand those complaining - they usually fall back to people with disabilities, and yet establishments will still have straws on-hand for those folks.
Not everywhere, they won't. Santa Barbara just passed a straw ban without any exceptions for disabled people who actually need plastic straws. In other places, it's still legal for restaurants to keep straws around for those who need them, but the restaurants don't all know that.
From what I can tell, reading what straw-using disabled people have to say about this, it's as frustrating for them as if there were suddenly a ban on toilet paper in public restrooms. They absolutely need this disposable item, and they have never needed to carry their own before, or ask about it in advance. Now all of a sudden they're stuck having to be super-prepared at all times they're out in public, or they risk not being able to meet a basic bodily need.
I'm curious. Quotes from the article: -- “It happens pretty much all the time if there is a strong rainfall or a storm,” The phenomenon is not confined to the Dominican Republic, he said, and can be seen in many developing nations with a coastline. “Everybody uses the rivers and the beaches as dump sites.” -- So we're being told that ocean's plastic garbage patch is somehow made out of the contents of landfills aroun…
> developing countries using ocean as a waste dump I thought this was common knowledge by this point. The most polluted rivers in the world are located in India, China, South America, Africa, and Indonesia.
Also the Dominican Republic is pretty developed country but in neighboring Haiti things are in pretty bad shape. I saw in a Youtube video by somebody who went there on an eco tour the piles on garbage on a river. He said the garbage was so bad you could walk across the river on the garbage. I can't locate the video clip anymore.