90% of the plastic in the ocean comes from Africa and Asia. First world countries put their garbage, generally speaking, into garbage dumps. This EU rule will do nothing.
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EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021
91–100 of 192 posts
Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021
#92Earlier 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.
You see them some in the US, there are also some that are that are made from corn. They feel/flex like plastic but are biodegradable.
Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
That's interesting. I have no experience with motor control issues, so that comes as a complete surprise to me. Eating involves fine manipulation of the cutlery to load it with food, and then hitting a relatively small target surrounded by things that you really don't want to, say, stab with a fork if you miss that target. I'd have expected that if one has good enough motor control for that, washing cutlery in the si…
Running through it in my head, the largest hurdle seems to be the pinching motion required to scrape off a blade or tines. I can imagine someone being able to support a utensil from underneath, move it slowly in the right direction, but not able to apply enough pressure to clean it. It might also be harder to keep hold of a wet utensil in water, or it might be impossible to bend over to fill and unload a dishwasher.
Of course, it could be as simple as just saying that you have to feed yourself, but you don't have to do the dishes. Someone might be able to do 10 things a day, but not 20.
Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021
#9490% of the plastic in the ocean comes from Africa and Asia. First world countries put their garbage, generally speaking, into garbage dumps. This EU rule will do nothing.
90% of the junk we consume is built in Asia.
90% of the trash we produce is shipped back to Asia and Africa for """recycling""".
Sometimes it's good to take a few steps back and a good hard look at ourselves before blaming china / africa / russia / whoever_as_long_as_it_isn't_me.
First world countries are the root cause of China's and Africa's pollution. Why do you think everything is delocalised there ? Because rich EU/US companies want to help the poor locals ? Or because it's cheap af and there are next to no regulations concerning pollution ?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/tomorrow/electronic-wast...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/burning-truth-...
Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021
#95If you could build a machine that sterilized the utensils, shredded them, and then 3d printed them. If the machine was the size of a microwave, and cost under $200, you could make a fortune.
Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021
#96Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021
#97They're banning single use plastic only. Other plastic plates are not banned. Given how much it costs in Europe to rent square meters to store stuff I wonder if event companies won't just buy multiple-use plastic plates and just throw them away anyway as it's cheaper than to pay personal to clean them, transport them to containers and then rent the space to store them, secure them etc.
this is exactly what happened with the previous ban
single use plastic bags were banned, so now instead people accumulate the more dense multi-use bags under their kitchen sink instead
Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021
#9890% of the plastic in the ocean comes from Africa and Asia. First world countries put their garbage, generally speaking, into garbage dumps. This EU rule will do nothing.
> 90% of the plastic in the ocean comes from Africa and Asia
You might find this reddit comment interesting, because it debunks this statistic.
https://www.reddit.com/r/badscience/comments/aj0idr/debunkin...
Plastic in the ocean comes from roughly 3 sources: industrial equipment, microfibres from clothing, and land-based waste carried into the sea by rivers.
The 90% figure only applies to this last one.
Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021
#9990% of the plastic in the ocean comes from Africa and Asia. First world countries put their garbage, generally speaking, into garbage dumps. This EU rule will do nothing.
y, I used to think this way. We went on a river clean up(major river in the midwest), they take you in a small boat up river and drop you off. I wasn't expecting we would not accomplish much. 8 of us a mix of kids and adults we collected a huge pile of trash and debris from the edge of the river. The volunteer group comes by and picks up all the piles of trash the groups collect while we are eating lunch and piles it up in the parking lot. The twenty groups that went out made a huge difference. It was an amazing amount collected.
A lot of small efforts can make a huge difference. I think setting a good example in the first world will translate world wide.
Never underestimate the tiniest effort/gesture.
We also do a road side cleanup, I assure you the first world doesn't put all their garbage in the trash. It's amazing what people will just throw out their window.
Re: EU to ban plastic plates, cups, and cutlery by 2021
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the future we'll just walk around with silverware and a cup at all times.
Actually you might be onto a new market, creating forks that you bring with you everywhere like a pocket knife.
I wouldn't call camping supplies a new market so much as repurposed.