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Wave After Wave of Garbage Hits the Dominican Republic

nytimes.com

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Re: Wave After Wave of Garbage Hits the Dominican Republic

#111

Post by ransom1538 »

munificent wrote: post #71
SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw that on the Malaysian peninsula. Chinese fishing villages that still speak an old dialect of Cantonese. It's worse in what looks to be the dry season and low tide like you have there. The other issue is that it's not important to them to clean it up - as it was explained to me. I talked to a local while there and she explained that growing up she never saw it, but years away and she doesn't like it now but know…

I live in Seattle, one of the most expensive cities in the US. Most of the houseboats on Lake Washington and Lake Union dumped their sewage straight into the lakes until the late 60s. It was only this year that we passed an ordinance prohibiting dumping treated sewage from boats into Puget Sound and the lakes. That's a shudder-inducing thought when you consider that many of the delicious oysters we have here are dire…

Nope. I don’t eat oysters and if I see someone eat one I excuse myself before I vomit. Thanks dumpers.

Re: Wave After Wave of Garbage Hits the Dominican Republic

#113

Post by wyattpeak »

bpicolo wrote: post #70
Shivetya wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, the Western world is doing a lot of work in keeping it out of water ways and oceans. The majority of trash is from China and other Asian countries. [1] What can we do? Simple, this is where trade requirements include treating the environment right. We already have restrictions on seafood harvesting and protecting certain species like whales and dolphins. no reason we cannot hold trade to require proper handli…

To be fair, part of the way we "take care" of it is by shipping a bunch of it's trash to China [0]. [0] https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/why-china-isnt-taking-amer...

I mean, true in the most technical sense, but given the Chinese paid an estimated half billion dollars for it in 2016 [1], the implication that it's being dumped there is disingenuous.

[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/china-bans-foreig...

Re: Wave After Wave of Garbage Hits the Dominican Republic

#115

Post by btbuildem »

> The plastic waste washing onto Montesinos Beach comes from the Ozama River, which flows into the Caribbean nearby, one of those in charge of the cleanup, Gen. Rafael Antonio Carrasco, told Reuters.

Maybe I misread this, but it sounds like the source of the garbage is relatively local.

It's not the Great Garbage Patch or anything like that, it's the DR's own garbage they they throw in the Ozama River that's washing up ashore.

Re: Wave After Wave of Garbage Hits the Dominican Republic

#116

Post by [deleted] »

newnewpdro wrote: post #88
toomuchtodo wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also makes it a natural carbon sink (trees->paper packaging->landfills).

Isn't the paper decomposing in the landfill still part of the carbon cycle? Landfills break down, shrink, venting gases back into the atmosphere.

[deleted]

Re: Wave After Wave of Garbage Hits the Dominican Republic

#117

Post by WhompingWindows »

dsabanin wrote: post #4

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…

Who is telling you all the ocean's garbage /plastic patches are from landfills? I haven't read that personally. The evidence I've seen points to general litter, things falling from garbage receptacles, and in addition developing nations with very lax cultural norms around garbage. I don't think landfills are in the picture as one of the top factors.

Re: Wave After Wave of Garbage Hits the Dominican Republic

#118

Post by oasisbob »

unethical_ban wrote: post #86
munificent wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Seattle, one of the most expensive cities in the US. Most of the houseboats on Lake Washington and Lake Union dumped their sewage straight into the lakes until the late 60s. It was only this year that we passed an ordinance prohibiting dumping treated sewage from boats into Puget Sound and the lakes. That's a shudder-inducing thought when you consider that many of the delicious oysters we have here are dire…

I thought federal regulations required the dumping of sewage 12-25 miles from coastline.

They do - this expands those regulations (which have exceptions for discharge of treated sewage) into a full-blown "no discharge zone" (NDZ), where even treated effluent can't be dumped.

As I understand it, the federal regulations reference distance from land - and the Puget Sound is really more of a sea than an open coastline. The previous regulation was something like being 3 miles away from land to dump untreated sewage.

https://www.marineinsight.com/tech/sewage-treatment-plant/

https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Puget-Sound/No-disch...

Re: Wave After Wave of Garbage Hits the Dominican Republic

#119

Post by zaroth »

gfo wrote: post #17
throwaway427 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Explain the inconvenience you're experiencing because you can't get a straw?

Do you have young children? If you do, you know very well the inconvenience of not having straws.

How about know anyone with facial nerve paralysis like Bells Palsy where they need a straw to drink without spilling liquid all over themselves?!

Carrying your own straws won’t help if the lid isn’t designed to take one.

The straw ban is just more faux outrage virtue signaling bullshit which makes people think they are doing something that is helping, so that when it comes to actually doing something worthwhile they don’t bother because — yah! No more straws!

Sometimes I am terribly disappointed in the way these movements develop, percolate through false narratives, fake stats, and outright lies, and then when exposed as grandstanding bullshit the argument shifts to; but at least it’s something?

Actually, the truth? It’s not something. It’s a step backwards (see Starbucks). It’s draining, it’s inconvenient, and it saps goodwill from a lot of people who really would be willing to make meaningful changes... but instead we’re out there banning straws and banning serving water at restaurants without having to ask.

Sigh....

Re: Wave After Wave of Garbage Hits the Dominican Republic

#120

Post by zaroth »

jannyfer wrote: post #33
gfo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't know if the parent comment was complaining of inconvenience. 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.

It was “some Internet analysis” — by a 9 year old apparently? — that got the ball rolling on this latest legislative fleecing.

Banning straws are a non-trivial step backwards which will lead to more pollution IMO.

It’s a mockery of real steps which could be taken that would have orders of magnitude more effect on actual pollution levels.

If you think banning straws are an actual benefit, I think you’ve left science behind and moved on to politics.

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