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EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021

fastcompany.com

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Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021

#41

Post by mixedCase »

Pfhreak wrote: post #29
vimy wrote: post #5

The western world is responsible for 1,25 % of all ocean plastic pollution. Europe is only 0,28 %![0] There is no need to ban single-use plastics in the West. It's just virtue signaling and the so-called 'solutions' lower our comfort, will cause a rise in food poisoning deaths and are worse for the environment.[1] When you mention this, people reply we should set an example and other countries will follow. The idea t…

What if .5% is the biggest single chunk of plastic use you can eliminate in your sphere of influence? Should you: a) Do nothing, because it's "only" 0.5% b) Eliminate 0.5% because it's something you can do. > It's just virtue signaling and the so-called 'solutions' lower our comfort Oh, right, I see. Yeah, I mean you'll be comfortable for the next thirty years. Who cares about the next generation, am I right?

If a given generation is doomed by plastic misuse, going through the big effort that would net in .5% total savings in western countries is hardly going to postpone the calamity to the following generation.

Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021

#42

Post by 24gttghh »

amyjess wrote: post #32
incog-neato wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not: Fast food: metal cutlery at the restaurant that gets washed and reused. Take away: your own cutlery at home.

And what if you have motor control issues that makes it impossible to wash cutlery to any standard of cleanliness? I've said it before, and I've said it again: these anti-plastic laws are actively hostile to people with disabilities.

They make compostable plastic utensils now, along with wooden ones. We should use those instead if we really need something disposable.

Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021

#43

Post by incog-neato »

amyjess wrote: post #32
incog-neato wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not: Fast food: metal cutlery at the restaurant that gets washed and reused. Take away: your own cutlery at home.

And what if you have motor control issues that makes it impossible to wash cutlery to any standard of cleanliness? I've said it before, and I've said it again: these anti-plastic laws are actively hostile to people with disabilities.

Please tone down the language here. I'm not for hostility against people with disabilities.

However, keep in mind this is a small fraction of people and does not justify single-use plastics. There's more discussion of alternative materials in other branches of this post.

Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021

#44

Post by vonmoltke »

ineedasername wrote: post #26
danielbln wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And wooden single-use cutlery is pretty common already today.

Really? I've never seen it in the US, except in the form of wooden coffee stirrers.

I have seen bamboo plates and cutlery, though it isn't common.

Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021

#45

Post by hombre_fatal »

GeneralMayhem wrote: post #11
mc32 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you bring your own (multi use) take away container? Kind of like when you bring your own coffee mug to a coffee shop?

Even setting aside the inconvenience factor, that would become a hygiene problem very quickly. Disposability is extremely useful when cleaning isn't an immediate option.

Maybe we'll just bring or receive our fast-fired pottery plates, eat on them, smash them into the clay pile on the way out, and some companies collect and recycle it back into quick pottery the same way companies drop drums of water off at my house.

A lot of these comments just remind me of a roomie I had in uni would would come up with endless reasons why he never owned a single reusable piece of dishware. It's suddenly about hygiene and... do you even know how many people die in $country cuz they can't just throw their plates away?! And the time savings! He must save hours each day actually if you do the math. And are you sure using so much water to clean a plate is any eco-friendlier than the plastic he just tossed after eating that sandwich? Oh yeah, and disabled people! How would he clean a plate if he had no hands? Or if he was just a disembodied head whose only form of locomotion was to be tossed around like a volleyball. What then, huh??

But at this point you indulge him just to see if he'll even admit that he's just not willing to spend 5 seconds rinsing a plate after use. And any time he does use one of the communal reusable dishes, it'll collect mold in the sink until someone else washes it for him.

Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021

#46

Post by dashundchen »

cf498 wrote: post #40
simion314 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If my local river is full of garbage does it help that some other country has even more garbage? I see this laws helping also with the local plastic problem.

Does your local river actually have a plastic problem? I am not sure thats a problem in western countries with functioning waste management systems. I thought the water problems we had were generally from industrial or agriculture runoffs. Am I wrong?

It definitely is a problem in the US, whether there is awareness or not.

https://www.usgs.gov/news/widespread-plastic-pollution-found...

This is just in water, I would not be surprised if there is a problem of similar magnitude with accumulation in soil.

Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021

#47

Post by cabaalis »

dmwallin wrote: post #33
vimy wrote: post #5

The western world is responsible for 1,25 % of all ocean plastic pollution. Europe is only 0,28 %![0] There is no need to ban single-use plastics in the West. It's just virtue signaling and the so-called 'solutions' lower our comfort, will cause a rise in food poisoning deaths and are worse for the environment.[1] When you mention this, people reply we should set an example and other countries will follow. The idea t…

What you call virtue signaling other people call a form of morality. Just because not everyone is doing something doesn't mean that it's not the right thing to do. And even though it doesn't guarantee other countries will follow suit, it's disingenuous to suggest it doesn't make ANY difference. It helps normalize these policies in the global mindspace. Plastic pollution is death by a million cuts. Even though any spe…

I would call it a form of morality to require church attendance, or maybe to outlaw cursing.

You wouldn't want that, I assume? So maybe government should focus on guaranteeing freedom rather than thinking of ways to morally limit it.

Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021

#48

Post by DoreenMichele »

mc32 wrote: post #4
goodJobWalrus wrote: post #2

So what is the best replacement for fast food and takeaway purposes? Bamboo cutlery?

Maybe you bring your own (multi use) take away container? Kind of like when you bring your own coffee mug to a coffee shop?

We already have an uptick in "medieval diseases"* from unsanitary conditions among the homeless. Getting takeout is one of the ways homeless individuals who have a modicum of cash income (as opposed to just food stamps and the like) can take care of themselves to some reasonable degree. They generally aren't going to be in a position to properly wash and cleanly store their own take away containers.

Soup kitchens typically have worse food quality than fast food places, plus you typically wait in line for an hour or more next to other very poor people (often, but not always, also homeless). They frequently smell of cigarette smoke and/or marijuana smoke and are often in quite poor health, exposing you to a concentration of germs.

Soup kitchens have a tendency to be a horrifying concentration of poverty that makes it quite difficult to avoid ending up sick. It didn't take long on the the street for me to decide that I would rather not eat for short stints than to go to most soup kitchens.

It's also not uncommon for people who are handicapped, elderly or otherwise have personal challenges and personal burdens to rely heavily on take out. It's cheaper than eating in the restaurant because you can supply your own drinks, buy two meals and split it between three people in the privacy of your home and you don't necessarily have to tip. (I realize tipping is not a thing in some places, but you can get take out from places where it is a thing.)

* https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/medieval-diseases...

Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021

#49

Post by ogrisel »

vimy wrote: post #5

The western world is responsible for 1,25 % of all ocean plastic pollution. Europe is only 0,28 %![0] There is no need to ban single-use plastics in the West. It's just virtue signaling and the so-called 'solutions' lower our comfort, will cause a rise in food poisoning deaths and are worse for the environment.[1] When you mention this, people reply we should set an example and other countries will follow. The idea t…

Plastic micro-particles are found in tap water in most places around the world:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-...

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