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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

#181

Post by claudiawerner »

49para wrote: post #176
djsumdog wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You had me at "Overal consumption needs to stop" but lost me at "convincing the people who run...". The people required to make the changes are the "consumers" not the people running the companies. Companies will respond to DEMAND and nothing else.

But it's also obvious that companies shouldn't be able to supply anything and everything demanded. For instance, there is a demand for hitmen and child porn - this does not mean that the demand should be satisfied. It is also clear that companies influence both policy and desires (through advertising and taking advantage of mass-consumption) to change what is demanded. If we are looking for a practical solution, I see no reason why it lies on the billions of consumers to suddenly become environmentally conscious - and for what reason? To satisfy an ideal of "pure capitalism"?

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#182

Post by [deleted] »

sykic wrote: post #54
xfitm3 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article suggests glass shampoo bottles? No thanks. Plastic is a great material, it is just abused.

Plastic is not a great material for the environment and your comment illustrates the crux of the issue for humanity. We tend to optimize for local maxima and not global ones. As other commenters have pointed out pricing in externalities would be a great step forward. Plastic shampoo containers may not be so great in your eyes if their cost became prohibitively expensive.

[deleted]

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#183

Post by kalleboo »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #178
triplewipeass wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plastic is a great material for some uses, but it’s also a very durable material. I’d love to purchase shampoo in the form of a refill of the plastic shampoo bottle I’ve already purchased some months ago. Why buy a new bottle every time? That’s the part which doesn’t make sense.

What would the refill package look like?

Same way a glass shampoo bottle refill package would look like?

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#184

Post by vict00ms »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #142
TylerE wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just sorting, but contamination. Cardboard is recyclable. A pizza box soaked with grease ins't, and can contaminate other potential recyclables as well.

Isn't it? All reused cardboard gets soaked and cleaned first, I'm sure the recyclers can deal with oils and other such contaminants.

A single pizza box can ruin/contaminate an entire bale of cardboard.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#185

Post by mschuster91 »

zaroth wrote: post #7

I don’t know if this is correct, but here is my theory; Container ships have to make the voyage from the US back to China, why do it empty? They need massive tonnage to bring back, and the US just doesn’t export enough into China so let’s carry recycling? (This assumes the ships that bring X from China to the US can bring Y from the US back to Chine without expensive reconfiguration, and perhaps also that the ports o…

> In the presence of Chinese dumping no US facility could fairly exist in the market, so they all shut down. Now that the Chinese economic dumping had ceased, the US is left without a functioning market.

So, uh, basically the business model of venture capitalism? Go into a market, crush all the competition with massive amounts of cheap money and then jack up prices?

Don't call me surprised when China opens its ports for waste again but at 10x or 100x the price...

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#186

Post by mschuster91 »

Scientifical question: most plastics can be dissolved using acetone or other solvents. What keeps us from simply doing what von Laue and Franck did (dissolving their Nobel prize medals in aqua regia to hide them from the Nazis), just not with gold medals but with plastics?

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#187

Post by shortoncash »

14 wrote: post #78
quakeguy wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That documentary saddened and disgusted me. I realized that recycling is nothing more then moving my garbage to another country where some of it is recycled at the cost of their health and environment. I realized it is actually better to just toss my stuff in the trash and at least it stays in my country. But this still bothers me. In the past every jar you would buy at the store would fit the same lids as the cannin…

Yeah, I always wondered why I couldn't just get my MacBook at the Apple store unboxed and then let them keep the packaging and re-use it for transport. It's not like their box has any utility to me after; I just put my laptop and its pieces in a bag and never look back at that box.

The worst part is -- I keep a lot of boxes around for years thinking the little plastic doodads and little accessories might become useful for me someday. What actually happens is that they never get used and then get tossed after the product is no longer useful to me.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#188

Post by Kaiyou »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #21
nothrabannosir wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's all about the packaging industry and profit. Everything is about profit. The invention of the assembly line was about profit. Toothpaste is about profit. YC companies are about profit. It’s how our society works, and it’s not enough to just claim it’s about profit and call it a day. Good things are also about profit. What makes this bad? The lack of pricing in negative externalities. That is the root of all ca…

Before the neoliberal revolution globally, and the Thatcher+Reagan dogma, there was an awful lot that was not about profit that did not require a communist state. Things were done "for the good of the nation/town", or just because it was thought good to do. The NHS was not about profit. Flowers outside the town hall were not about profit. Nor were youth clubs, libraries, parks or a free town swimming pool. It is the…

You mean like free software/open-source? Don't know about other people, but I don't tend to leave my home all that much, so flowers outside town hall, clubs, libraries etc. are all things I don't care all that much for. Maybe that has to do with it.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#189

Post by linuxftw »

darkpuma wrote: post #157
xfitm3 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article suggests glass shampoo bottles? No thanks. Plastic is a great material, it is just abused.

Shampoo is a scam anyway. I've started using a bar of soap on my hair and it's just as clean and soft as it ever was. Just lather it in your hands before scrubbing your hair.

Shampoo should be illegal. That stuff is crazy toxic, we shouldn't be systematically dumping all those chemicals into the water supply.

Natural soap does work well on hair.

Re: India Imposes Complete Ban on Solid Plastic Waste Imports

#190

Post by dragonwriter »

linuxftw wrote: post #189
darkpuma wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shampoo is a scam anyway. I've started using a bar of soap on my hair and it's just as clean and soft as it ever was. Just lather it in your hands before scrubbing your hair.

Shampoo should be illegal. That stuff is crazy toxic, we shouldn't be systematically dumping all those chemicals into the water supply. Natural soap does work well on hair.

> Natural soap

Soap occurs in nature?

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