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India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

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Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#81

Post by repsilat »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #36

India should have done this long ago. Recycling items is way harder than it needs to be. First companies need to re-engineer their products to minimize the solid waste and maximize recyclability Second, people need to easily understand what can be recycled and what can not so they can make an informed decision Third, communities should not have the option to ship out their waste and have someone else deal with the pr…

> India should have done this long ago.

This is a government ban, which means they want to stop people who want to import this waste. Are those importers too financially illiterate to realise that they're costing themselves money? That even though their business is dealing with this waste, they need you and the Indian government to tell them that recycling is actually pretty tricky?

Maybe they should ban it because it's causing health or environmental problems, but banning activity you think is uneconomical is pointless at best and harmful at worse.

> communities should not have the option to ship out their waste and have someone else deal with the problem

Nobody is forcing anybody to do anything here. If you pay someone to take your trash, or if someone pays you to take your trash, both of you are better off. Banning the activity makes everyone worse off.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#82

Post by cdolan »

jdietrich wrote: post #79
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your swift and comprehensive reply. I wasn’t aware plastics could be burned and the exhaust contained / treated / whatever.

Plastics are, in essence, solidified crude oil. Many plastic products are very difficult to recycle, but they make perfectly satisfactory fuel. A modern waste-to-energy incinerator is no dirtier than a gas-fired power station. The Klemetsrud CHP facility in Norway provides a good model for the role of waste-to-energy incineration in a sustainable waste management system. http://www.trackmyelectricity.com/plants/kleme…

Great link thank you for sharing. It’s amazing how terrible a reputation waste to energy has.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#83

Post by madengr »

andrewstuart wrote: post #4

The dumping of "recycling" onto other countries just goes to show what a lie recycling actually is. It's not recycling, it's just garbage, but the word recycling makes us feel good about sending it to some other country to be dumped. With India and China refusing it, look to the "recycling" companies to make deals with countries that don't have the political will to say no to accepting the worlds plastic and paper ga…

China is also a big exporter of plastic shit. Maybe there ought to be a law that requires plastic shit to be retured to the country of origin.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#84

Post by djsumdog »

quakeguy wrote: post #49
andrewstuart wrote: post #4

The dumping of "recycling" onto other countries just goes to show what a lie recycling actually is. It's not recycling, it's just garbage, but the word recycling makes us feel good about sending it to some other country to be dumped. With India and China refusing it, look to the "recycling" companies to make deals with countries that don't have the political will to say no to accepting the worlds plastic and paper ga…

You are absolutly right. To others seeing this comment, i‘d recommend you watch the Documentary named „Plastic China“. It is on YT, but you support the makers here: https://www.plasticchina.org We need to stop plastic polluttion now, or im afraid the earths ecosystem will collapse sooner or later.

I feel like the debate on human induced climate change is a red haring. It's so abstract, it basically invites conflict and CO2 is absolutely nothing compared to issues of mass consumption. There are huge floating patches of plastic waste our oceans, being swallowed by sea life, killing fish and making its way into our food supply. There are massive lakes of sludge in Chinese and South Pacific factory cities used to make our electronics and PC components. There are disasters in the US like the Kingston Fossil spill where a coal plant containment damn breached and left a toxic slurry of coal ash and sludge flood the valley and enter the watershed.

Overall consumption needs to stop. Buying a new electric car requires all the waste that comes with making a car, plus the lithium and other metals needed for batteries that have to be replaced every ten years.

We cannot spend our way out of this. Humanity needs to consume less, to not replace cellphones and laptops every 2~4 years. Anything that fights real, tangible and easily measurable environmental disaster will also reduce CO2 emissions as a byproduct, but emissions themselves should not be and end goal.

The end goal is much much more difficult: convincing the people who run Intel and Apple and Samsung that it is in the planet's best interest to not have higher sales each year and that a better goal are products that last four times as long, where the sale of replacement parts are much higher than that of actual products. It requires fundamental shifts in the way our global economy works.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#85

Post by sagartewari01 »

andrewstuart wrote: post #4

The dumping of "recycling" onto other countries just goes to show what a lie recycling actually is. It's not recycling, it's just garbage, but the word recycling makes us feel good about sending it to some other country to be dumped. With India and China refusing it, look to the "recycling" companies to make deals with countries that don't have the political will to say no to accepting the worlds plastic and paper ga…

Because it will be inconvenient. It's like an unspoken agreement between us, "listen pal, if everyone does it, noone can be held accountable, and if you stop, it will be useless effort since everyone else will keep doing it". The second statement is used very often to justify the lazy decisions our fragile mind takes.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#86

Post by gotocake »

sagartewari01 wrote: post #85
andrewstuart wrote: post #4

The dumping of "recycling" onto other countries just goes to show what a lie recycling actually is. It's not recycling, it's just garbage, but the word recycling makes us feel good about sending it to some other country to be dumped. With India and China refusing it, look to the "recycling" companies to make deals with countries that don't have the political will to say no to accepting the worlds plastic and paper ga…

Because it will be inconvenient. It's like an unspoken agreement between us, "listen pal, if everyone does it, noone can be held accountable, and if you stop, it will be useless effort since everyone else will keep doing it". The second statement is used very often to justify the lazy decisions our fragile mind takes.

Maybe, or maybe it would be unprofitable.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#87

Post by hedora »

Vaguely on topic: I used to work in one of the tall buildings in downtown Berkeley, so I could see the bay.

Every day, I’d spot at least one garbage scow hauling stuff off to be dumped somewhere in the bay/ocean.

That was about the same time they banned single use plastic bags. The hypocrisy of inconveniencing everyone to make a show of doing something while still allowing the garbage scow pisses me off to this day.

I wish these environmental greenwash programs came with a legal requirement to do a end-to-end impact study after implementation.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#88

Post by immernerstheime »

i_am_nomad wrote: post #14
godzillabrennus wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe Russia needs a new industry? Is there any other nation (North Korea aside) that would let foreigners ship trash to be dumped on their land?

It would have to be kept very, very quiet, since Russia is very sensitive about prestige these days vis-a-vis the West.

I remember seen on the news or documentary or something kids in Africa burning computer trash for metals and shit plastic poisonous gases covering mouth with tshirts same style brazil jail when some situation and kids you see on the news quakeguy is a One who sails with the speed of googleFu Panda so kids in Africa yeah and I dont think is profitable to move plastic before recicling around probably the economics of recicling it insitu or sitting at sitting place well no sitting analogies and well so nice from LOved India I love India and Wix right so... I need to learn Indian Language and some kind of old characters they probably have and the Cirillic Alphabet too yeah I know jusy few words like Moloko what is MIlk and Krassavtza and Zaidnitzia and Klass`Ne Krassavttza Zaidnitzia JOpa!

KlassNe Jopa!!!

and some things like that but no much Cirillic yeah but learn like learn Traditional Chinese characters too as the people of Japan and the people of Korea and the people of Hong Kong and the people of Taiwan and the people of All China and VIetnam and Even in Malasya and the people of Cingapur and yeah I learn traditional characters too

and I dont want to learn fucking greek old letterts because im lazy yeah yeah yeah

thanks

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#89

Post by sagartewari01 »

gotocake wrote: post #86
sagartewari01 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it will be inconvenient. It's like an unspoken agreement between us, "listen pal, if everyone does it, noone can be held accountable, and if you stop, it will be useless effort since everyone else will keep doing it". The second statement is used very often to justify the lazy decisions our fragile mind takes.

Maybe, or maybe it would be unprofitable.

I don't think it will be even fractionally unprofitable compared to billions of us dying. I just realized I'm making an argument for socialism. Anyone up for it?

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#90

Post by zhte415 »

quakeguy wrote: post #49
andrewstuart wrote: post #4

The dumping of "recycling" onto other countries just goes to show what a lie recycling actually is. It's not recycling, it's just garbage, but the word recycling makes us feel good about sending it to some other country to be dumped. With India and China refusing it, look to the "recycling" companies to make deals with countries that don't have the political will to say no to accepting the worlds plastic and paper ga…

You are absolutly right. To others seeing this comment, i‘d recommend you watch the Documentary named „Plastic China“. It is on YT, but you support the makers here: https://www.plasticchina.org We need to stop plastic polluttion now, or im afraid the earths ecosystem will collapse sooner or later.

Interesting link. Another link!

This to a book that enlightened me to the chaotic world of globalised recycling: Junkyard Planet by Adam Minter. https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/1608197913

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