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What I learned about a plastic-free life

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Re: What I learned about a plastic-free life

#21

Post by vidarh »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #13
johnklos wrote: post #2

It's practically impossible to avoid plastic without great effort. I think even if we collectively don't do much towards that goal, each of us should think about it while we go about our daily lives. For instance, there are times where the choice is wholly ours. Eggs, for instance, often come in plastic or cardboard, so aside from taking a few extra seconds to consider the kind of eggs we want, that's easy. If we wan…

Cardboard and glass packaging used to be a lot more common. The key to reducing to use of plastic is fiddling with the economics. It's cheap for companies to use plastic as long as they don't have to worry about cleanup or recycling. As soon as you start charging them for the privilege of mass polluting our world with their cost savings, they can adapt pretty rapidly. In the Netherlands, there are some discussions ab…

Even with deposit schemes for recycling of plastic as well, the industry prefers plastic as it's cheaper to recycle than reuse of glass bottles. So you still need to dictate or tax plastic use extra. There are also environmental tradeoffs until renewable use for transport and industrial use are at sufficient levels.

Re: What I learned about a plastic-free life

#22

Post by SapporoChris »

userbinator wrote: post #5

tl;dr: live like the (early) 19th century. It's perplexing to see people jump on this stupid "anti-plastic" mentality bandwagon when they probably owe their entire existence to plastics and other advances in material sciences. Trying to reverse these changes will only lead to societal collapse, as somewhat hinted at in the article. Everything will get recycled eventually, and the majority of plastics are inert --- wh…

"Plus, I had to haul a heavy tote bag of containers everywhere." Germany has a wonderful system to reuse glassware. Wear rings determine when it is time to discard a bottle. Vending machines accept bottles and dispense the deposit. I totally admire it. However, the weight of glass is about twice the weight of aluminum cans.

Re: What I learned about a plastic-free life

#23

Post by ricketyricky »

d_sem wrote: post #3
johnklos wrote: post #2

It's practically impossible to avoid plastic without great effort. I think even if we collectively don't do much towards that goal, each of us should think about it while we go about our daily lives. For instance, there are times where the choice is wholly ours. Eggs, for instance, often come in plastic or cardboard, so aside from taking a few extra seconds to consider the kind of eggs we want, that's easy. If we wan…

Car dominated societies inevitably will expose their inhabitants to micro plastics through synthetic tire rubber dust. There is basically no possible way to avoid them without regulation.

[flagged]

Re: What I learned about a plastic-free life

#24

Post by vbezhenar »

vidarh wrote: post #21
jillesvangurp wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cardboard and glass packaging used to be a lot more common. The key to reducing to use of plastic is fiddling with the economics. It's cheap for companies to use plastic as long as they don't have to worry about cleanup or recycling. As soon as you start charging them for the privilege of mass polluting our world with their cost savings, they can adapt pretty rapidly. In the Netherlands, there are some discussions ab…

Even with deposit schemes for recycling of plastic as well , the industry prefers plastic as it's cheaper to recycle than reuse of glass bottles. So you still need to dictate or tax plastic use extra. There are also environmental tradeoffs until renewable use for transport and industrial use are at sufficient levels.

If the plastic recycled properly, why is it a problem?

Re: What I learned about a plastic-free life

#25

Post by userbinator »

MVissers wrote: post #6
userbinator wrote: post #5

tl;dr: live like the (early) 19th century. It's perplexing to see people jump on this stupid "anti-plastic" mentality bandwagon when they probably owe their entire existence to plastics and other advances in material sciences. Trying to reverse these changes will only lead to societal collapse, as somewhat hinted at in the article. Everything will get recycled eventually, and the majority of plastics are inert --- wh…

Thing is- We’re only now starting to realize how bad plastics really are, because we only recently acquired the tech to measure this. Unexplained fertility decline in the last 40 years? Probably plastic. They found that humans had 3x higher concentration of plastics in their testicles than their pet dogs, and that pet-dogs have a dose-dependent reduction in viable sperm count inversely correlated with the plastic con…

Unexplained fertility decline in the last 40 years?

The most common plastics have been in wide use for nearly a century. It's not "unexplained"; the fetility decline is a product of many variables that include diet and lifestyle changes, and especially as it correlates with population growth, this could be another feedback loop. Pointing to one of the most widespread materials which have been in use for much longer is nothing but fearmongering.

Might as well ascribe the "unexplained life expectancy increase" to plastics too. /s

and that pet-dogs have a dose-dependent reduction in viable sperm count inversely correlated with the plastic concentration

Correlation or causation? Or just a variant of the old "IN MICE!"?

Add that to the widespread phenomenon of p-hacking and a lot of this "research" is just politicised junk optimised for engagement rather than truth.

Re: What I learned about a plastic-free life

#26

Post by userbinator »

BadHumans wrote: post #7
userbinator wrote: post #5

tl;dr: live like the (early) 19th century. It's perplexing to see people jump on this stupid "anti-plastic" mentality bandwagon when they probably owe their entire existence to plastics and other advances in material sciences. Trying to reverse these changes will only lead to societal collapse, as somewhat hinted at in the article. Everything will get recycled eventually, and the majority of plastics are inert --- wh…

This is all speculative. You hope everything will get recycled and you hope that people in the future will find a way to use what's in landfills. I hold the opposing view. Most of what is produced today is not recyclable and I have no faith in people to find ways to empty landfills.

As long as society doesn't regress and collapse due to this radical environmentalism, we will find a way. Several hundred years ago, we did not know what to do with the dark oily substance oozing out of the ground. ;-)

Re: What I learned about a plastic-free life

#27

Post by zoklet-enjoyer »

johnklos wrote: post #2

It's practically impossible to avoid plastic without great effort. I think even if we collectively don't do much towards that goal, each of us should think about it while we go about our daily lives. For instance, there are times where the choice is wholly ours. Eggs, for instance, often come in plastic or cardboard, so aside from taking a few extra seconds to consider the kind of eggs we want, that's easy. If we wan…

Yogurt is fun and easy to make at home. And pickles. And beer. And bread. The only drawback is it takes time.

Re: What I learned about a plastic-free life

#28

Post by jondwillis »

SECProto wrote: post #20
jillesvangurp wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cardboard and glass packaging used to be a lot more common. The key to reducing to use of plastic is fiddling with the economics. It's cheap for companies to use plastic as long as they don't have to worry about cleanup or recycling. As soon as you start charging them for the privilege of mass polluting our world with their cost savings, they can adapt pretty rapidly. In the Netherlands, there are some discussions ab…

Note that cardboard for liquid packaging often has a plastic lining, aluminum cans have plastic/epoxy lining, glass containers have plastic seals in the lids, etc.

truly this. you start deconstructing packaging only to e.g. realize they've glued LDPE into the inside of an otherwise fully recyclable item to make it look slightly better in stores for longer due to moisture.

Re: What I learned about a plastic-free life

#29

Post by chrismcb »

kvark wrote: post #4

It’s a bit ridiculous that we’ve built a system to motivate change by distributing money, and that system fails flat when it comes to plastic use. In a healthy society, avoiding plastic would be both cheaper and more convenient.

It is interesting you complain about money distribution and then your next statement talks about being cheaper. The reason paid is so prevalent is because it is cheaper and more convenient. I'm not sure what you mean by "healthy society" but the reason money is distributed is to try to make something else cheaper and more convenient. But that takes time and money.
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