41–50 of 89 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody is going to do that without a deposit, and that is hard to push through. IMO use tax policy to drive it. Put a $5 tax on plastic clamshells and they’ll be gone in six months.
And replaced with “reusable” clamshells that somehow don’t count as plastic and they’ll be five times as thick and use way more resources to produce. :-/
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2017/03/04/clamshell-pa...
By weight, I estimate that my household produces about 1/3 recyclable trash vs. landfill trash. But by volume, it's almost at parity (before compaction, since I'm a household). I wonder if an equal alternative would be to collect each type of recyclable once a month. Eg. - 1st week: paper/cardboards - 2nd week: plastics - 3rd week: glass - 4th week: metals Yes it would mean more trash cans but in total volume I don't…
There was uproar when we moved to this from weekly rubbish and recycling collection, but most of the time it really seems to work - we recycle far more than I thought we would.
From a linked nat geo article: “I never thought plastic recycling would work,” says Roland Geyer, an engineering professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of the study “Production, use and fate of all plastics ever made.” “There is a viable business model around metal, but plastics never has had that. It’s too low-value, too contaminated, with too many different polymers mixed together. And…
We need to focus more on reuse than on recycling. I'd like to see regulations and tax incentives to encourage beverage companies to use glass bottles that can be washed and reused, rather than disposable aluminum or (even worse) plastic. It's a common sight in Silicon Valley offices to see greasy empty pizza boxes in the recycling bin. People just don't seem to realize that greasy cardboard can't be recycled, and mig…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hassled decor (home plastic container company) about BPA and they said their food grade containers had never had BPA. Oddly they saw no need to market on this.
It’s a risk area because the risks of BPA likely exist in whatever they are using. I always assume there’s something nasty under the surface with plastic drink and serving ware — like 6 months after the first BPA studies hit the press, GE sold its plastic and silicone divisions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody is going to do that without a deposit, and that is hard to push through. IMO use tax policy to drive it. Put a $5 tax on plastic clamshells and they’ll be gone in six months.
And replaced with “reusable” clamshells that somehow don’t count as plastic and they’ll be five times as thick and use way more resources to produce. :-/
From a linked nat geo article: “I never thought plastic recycling would work,” says Roland Geyer, an engineering professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of the study “Production, use and fate of all plastics ever made.” “There is a viable business model around metal, but plastics never has had that. It’s too low-value, too contaminated, with too many different polymers mixed together. And…
It doesn't make economic sense to use a different material which is more recyclable because, by the definition of this problem, they're much more expensive.
Perhaps the answer is re-usable plastic containers - maybe some system where you can post them back to the manufacturer for cleaning and re-use.
It might just be that once oil drilling for energy goes away, so does some of this problem - at least in that plastics would cease to be so cheap.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We need to focus on reducing production , with reuse as a secondary and complementary measure. We have a ton of disposable crap and packaging in our lives, much of it is inherently garbage. Reuse what we can, but reduce the production of things that become waste.
Does reducing production fit with our brand of capitalism?
Instead of buying pre-cut veggies and fruit, you can get the individual ones and do it yourself.
Unfortunately, what this thread sees as waste consumers often see as a benefit: buying items in sealed containers lets you have peace of mind against spoilage or in-store contamination (anyone can open up those pour-your-own tubs of olive oil and sneeze into them).
Additionally, packaged things stack up better, so you can offer consumers a wider variety- laundry detergent scents, drink flavors, and so forth. Offering pour-your-own means maintaining and cleaning goods and equipment that are exposed to both product and air, which is more expensive for grocers.
Finally, packaging (especially the clamshell variety) is often used for protection- from damaging the contents in shipping / handling to acting as a mild anti-theft device.
So, yes, there is a market for reduced-production goods. Produce, grains, soft drinks at gas stations, and some other goods are already there.
If there is a reasonable way to protect goods, ensure their freshness, offer a unique variety in a low maintenance fashion, there's money to be made. If you can't do that and still want to reduce production, you're going to either end up creating more waste through some side effect of the tradeoffs involved.
We need to focus more on reuse than on recycling. I'd like to see regulations and tax incentives to encourage beverage companies to use glass bottles that can be washed and reused, rather than disposable aluminum or (even worse) plastic. It's a common sight in Silicon Valley offices to see greasy empty pizza boxes in the recycling bin. People just don't seem to realize that greasy cardboard can't be recycled, and mig…
They don't know because most recycling is the "feel good" type of mentality. People don't actually know what can and cannot be recycled.
From a linked nat geo article: “I never thought plastic recycling would work,” says Roland Geyer, an engineering professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of the study “Production, use and fate of all plastics ever made.” “There is a viable business model around metal, but plastics never has had that. It’s too low-value, too contaminated, with too many different polymers mixed together. And…
We have knit plastic bags that we can put veggies in. Super light (no tare needed) and can hold a lot... Yet we've used them hundreds of times.
Now think of that crappy flimsy plastic bag, or plastic wrapping. It's used once, and "thrown away" (please: define where away is..). That's the problem - single use and nearly impossible to use for anything else.