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U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds (2020)

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds (2020)

#71

Post by ojnabieoot »

dynm wrote: post #23

> The U.S. also ranks as high as third among coastal nations for contributing litter, illegally dumped trash and other mismanaged waste to its shorelines. I can't access the paper, but can anyone verify: Do I understand correctly that this means the US might be as high as third in terms of contributing trash that ends up on the US's coastline?

I think you misread it. I believe they mean that among the coastal nations, the US ranks 3rd in terms of polluting its own coastline. I also don’t have access to the paper, but the number 2 coastal nation then pollutes its own coastline worse than the US.

Re: U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds (2020)

#72

Post by CameronNemo »

Causality1 wrote: post #41
jedberg wrote: post #27

This problem won't get fixed without legislation. Single use plastic is cheaper, so of course companies will use that if they can. Most people don't have the income to support "voting with their wallet", and even those who do don't always have the option. IF the best solution out there happens to use single use plastic, you're not going to opt for a worse solution just because it doesn't. And even if one company care…

You also have to think in terms of actual harm. Considering the US has an absurd amount of junk land it can use for landfills, a single use plastic object that has 1/1000 the carbon emissions of the reusable alternative may be the best environmental choice.

The only sustainable way to dispose of plastic is incineration.

Otherwise you poison the land and water that flows through the land.

Re: U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds (2020)

#73

Post by dr_dshiv »

edoceo wrote: post #46
Causality1 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also have to think in terms of actual harm. Considering the US has an absurd amount of junk land it can use for landfills, a single use plastic object that has 1/1000 the carbon emissions of the reusable alternative may be the best environmental choice.

Where is the "junk land"? Almost everywhere has animals that likely don't enjoy plastic.

Omg, travel the USA more. So. Much. Land.

Re: U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds (2020)

#74

Post by eastendguy »

Causality1 wrote: post #41
jedberg wrote: post #27

This problem won't get fixed without legislation. Single use plastic is cheaper, so of course companies will use that if they can. Most people don't have the income to support "voting with their wallet", and even those who do don't always have the option. IF the best solution out there happens to use single use plastic, you're not going to opt for a worse solution just because it doesn't. And even if one company care…

You also have to think in terms of actual harm. Considering the US has an absurd amount of junk land it can use for landfills, a single use plastic object that has 1/1000 the carbon emissions of the reusable alternative may be the best environmental choice.

> a single use plastic object that has 1/1000 the carbon emissions of the reusable alternative may be the best environmental choice.

Is there any data that single use stuff (of any kind) creates less carbon emissions? I would expect it to be the other way around, except for some edge cases.

Re: U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds (2020)

#75

Post by rcstank »

gogopuppygogo wrote: post #42
hereforphone wrote: post #37

This might be the case, I don't necessarily dispute it. But with this sort of thing always keep in mind that the US (and other Western countries) tend to be more compliant with reporting actual facts than say.... China (who somehow is ranked 107 in the world for covid-19 cases, despite their huge population).

[flagged]

Why is the truth being downvoted?

Re: U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds (2020)

#76

Post by andrewmcwatters »

ardit33 wrote: post #22

Pre pandemic, I'd go often to trader joe, and they would give samples. It was maybe a small bite of a food (ice cream, salat, or whatever else), and use a plastic fork for it. Just one bite, and you had to throw it out. It was more plastic than food. Whole Foods was the same. I think it is a crime against environment and I started feeling bad about it, and stopped taking samples when there were plastic utensils. It t…

Just have the sample. Your refusal to not consume it isn't going to change them buying the plastic, because given the choice, people aren't going to stop sampling in the aggregate. And at that point you're just signaling to other people in a really silly way.

If you really care, talk to your local representatives or write to Trader Joes and Whole Foods. Anything else is posturing. Not taking a sample which costs them a few cents on the dollar is not taking action.

I'm not going to stop, personally. They can give it to me in paper wrapping instead if they want to make a difference, and in fact, with their cups, they already do. Let someone invest in paper sampling spoons.

Re: U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds (2020)

#77

Post by im_down_w_otp »

jedberg wrote: post #27

This problem won't get fixed without legislation. Single use plastic is cheaper, so of course companies will use that if they can. Most people don't have the income to support "voting with their wallet", and even those who do don't always have the option. IF the best solution out there happens to use single use plastic, you're not going to opt for a worse solution just because it doesn't. And even if one company care…

Single use stuff seems easy enough to fix. What seems less obvious to me is what I experienced when shopping for a potty chair for our youngest there were dozens of options at just a single store for a big hunk of plastic that's only useful for a period of months. We ended up not buying one at all.

I had a similar experience the last time I was at CES and was deep into the "South Hall" where there's kiosk after display booth after kiosk of just completely pointless crap of every shape and size. Thousands of practically identical cheap cell phone cases. Thousands of cheap bags and backpacks adorned with battery packs and/or Bluetooth speakers. Each and every booth staffed with multiple people who have to stand there and try to convince you that their big mountain of garbage is somehow special. At the same time as it's astonishingly wasteful and kind of insane when you think about it, it's also completely existentially debasing to the people involved.

If we have a global addiction to anything that seems like it needs fixing, it seems like we're addicted to producing stuff we don't need for problems we don't have just for the sake of doing something.

Re: U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds (2020)

#78

Post by nikisweeting »

jonas21 wrote: post #66
8note wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that a sensible phrase? The environment is everywhere.

Yes, as long as the plastic ends up in a proper landfill, it won't cause harm to the environment. In places with good waste management practices, like the U.S., nearly all plastic trash ends up in a landfill. As a result, the U.S. is responsible for only ~0.25% of plastic in the ocean [1]. To put this in perspective, if you got the Philippines to reduce the amount of plastic it sends to the ocean by just 1%, it would…

To add to this, landfills have a bad reputation but are actually a pretty good solution to trash when operated well. By concentrating waste in a single place and sealing it in hermetically (with constant nearby environmental monitoring), it doesn't end up strewn everywhere.

Also when it becomes economical to recycle parts it in the future, we don't have to go hunting around for it, we can just dig it up and process it in-place or nearby.

https://medium.com/@robertwiblin/what-you-think-about-landfi...

Re: U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds (2020)

#79

Post by Retric »

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #67
Retric wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the US still has landfills as does Europe. “In 2018, 24% of all municipal waste generated in the EU was landfilled.” That said, incineration is a similar option that drastically lowers volume of waste, but still produced ash that ends up buried and vast amounts of CO2.

Yeah, the news I remembered were about Germany, specifically. it, and a few others, are at https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/201...

That’s extremely misleading Germany simply uses incinerators before dumping the ash in landfills.

“One nation now grappling with the legacy of its long embrace of incineration is Denmark. The country, one of Europe’s biggest waste producers, built so many incinerators that by 2018 it was importing a million tons of trash.”

https://e360.yale.edu/features/in-europe-a-backlash-is-growi...

Re: U.S. generates more plastic trash than any other nation, report finds (2020)

#80

Post by MattGaiser »

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #50
Causality1 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also have to think in terms of actual harm. Considering the US has an absurd amount of junk land it can use for landfills, a single use plastic object that has 1/1000 the carbon emissions of the reusable alternative may be the best environmental choice.

Does the US still operate landfills? Some or all EU countries have completely abandoned the practice. So that's just not a harm that matters, unlike some other ones. In any case, it'd be compounding the problem here, and rather bad economics at the same time. Plastics aren't that hard to collect/separate, especially if it's ok to be mixed with paper. They burn readily and, given high temperatures, cleanly, allowing t…

Is incineration of plastic really better for the environment than a landfill? And would the ash not go to a landfill of sorts?
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