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Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

latimes.com

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Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#21

Post by netfire »

pen2l wrote: post #6

This might be a dumb question, but: why don't we do glass-style bottles? I live in America now, but when I used to live in Pakistan 20 years ago, I remember that I would buy pepsi or coki in a glass bottle... and if I wanted to buy a second one, I would go back to the store and give them the old empty bottle, and they would compensate me a few pennies for it -- and the bottle then is presumably washed and reused. It'…

The problem with glass is that it isn’t biodegradable. If it gets broken, it can cause a hazard for humans and wildlife. If it gets thrown away, it’s not going to break down. Glass is good for the ideal case, but not great for the other use cases. For milk and juice, it’s seems like thick paper might be a better option, since it’s biodegradable and recyclable.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#22

Post by anon_cow1111 »

devoply wrote: post #5

Replace with glass and aluminum, with what's left over burn it. That way it has no way of creating any other problems in the future. If you are efficient with burning it you could even capture the greenhouse gasses produced as a result and sequester those.

As someone who rides a bicycle and hikes, glass bottles are the bane of my existence.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#24

Post by mattmanser »

anon_cow1111 wrote: post #22
devoply wrote: post #5

Replace with glass and aluminum, with what's left over burn it. That way it has no way of creating any other problems in the future. If you are efficient with burning it you could even capture the greenhouse gasses produced as a result and sequester those.

As someone who rides a bicycle and hikes, glass bottles are the bane of my existence.

Get reusable plastic ones and decant then.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#25

Post by [deleted] »

anon_cow1111 wrote: post #22
devoply wrote: post #5

Replace with glass and aluminum, with what's left over burn it. That way it has no way of creating any other problems in the future. If you are efficient with burning it you could even capture the greenhouse gasses produced as a result and sequester those.

As someone who rides a bicycle and hikes, glass bottles are the bane of my existence.

[deleted]

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#26

Post by deogeo »

pen2l wrote: post #6

This might be a dumb question, but: why don't we do glass-style bottles? I live in America now, but when I used to live in Pakistan 20 years ago, I remember that I would buy pepsi or coki in a glass bottle... and if I wanted to buy a second one, I would go back to the store and give them the old empty bottle, and they would compensate me a few pennies for it -- and the bottle then is presumably washed and reused. It'…

Because of industry lobbying: https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2017/11/06/packaging-indust...

They are bribing our politicians so that they would not be prevented from poisoning our world. 'Enemy' is too kind a word for such people.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#27

Post by wil421 »

eli wrote: post #16
wil421 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plastic is cheaper and doesn’t shatter. Some states in the US still have the refund thing for bottles. I’ve seen a vending machine in NYC for bottle refunds and one in Munich, Germany. When I was in Central America they wouldn’t let you leave the store with the bottle. They would provide a plastic bag where you could sip the coke out with a straw.

To be clear: the bottle redemption machines in New York crush bottles, they don't save them for reuse

Wow I did not know that. It’s likely being thrown in a land fill. The garbage companies around me stopped collecting bottles years ago.

Do they do it to keep trash off the streets?

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#28

Post by kwanbix »

layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #20
ivankolev wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People often mention hygiene and complicated logistics as the reason disposable plastic packaging was adopted. I think as with lots of other examples through history, it is hard to know beforehand the negativities of an application of technology.

Hygiene? You can safely clean glassware with the most aggressive of chemicals, then maybe run it through an autoclave for extra safety. Funny that people complain about glassware hygiene while chugging phtalate-infused beverages from plastic bottles.

Most "aggressive of chemicals" doesn´t sound too good...

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#29

Post by Scoundreller »

opportune wrote: post #3

As far as I can understand it, the recycling industry is a well-intentioned waste of resources. It would be much better for the environment for all this waste to be sequestered in a landfill than for people to pay to ship it around the world only for most of it to be dumped or rejected (which, even when the Asian countries in question do accept it, they are likely to do anyway). These materials (plastics) are so chea…

And plastics are cheaper than ever in N. America.

We fractionate the ethane out from natural gas, and we’re fracking a lot of natural gas.

And it isn’t easy to store ethane, so we’re turning on more and more plants to turn it into polyethylene.

At least in winter, the ethane can be used to froth up gasoline, but in summer, there’s not a lot to do with ethane.

Re: Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

#30

Post by butisaidsudo »

From what I understand, shipping containers are sent out from Asia stuffed with goods, but there isn't nearly as much going in the other direction. The containers need to go back whether they're full or not, which is why it ends up being so cheap to ship plastic. And the CO2 caused doesn't really change as a result.

To the rest of your point though, I agree. My wife is a hardline recycler. I generally am too, but I have a hard time seeing the benefit in recycling soft plastics.

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