I think using a cotton bag 173 times to beat plastic bags and a mug 1,000 times to beat disposable cups sounds completely reasonable.
Just Bury Your Trash
11–20 of 176 posts
Re: Just Bury Your Trash
#12If a country burns coal. It should burn trash first, before the coal.
Absolutely, but green activists are actively fighting against burning trash. This needs to stop. Even if a country doesn't burn coal it should still burn trash instead of sending it to poor countries. People need to take responsibility for the trash that they generate.
Re: Just Bury Your Trash
#13I think using a cotton bag 173 times to beat plastic bags and a mug 1,000 times to beat disposable cups sounds completely reasonable.
thats assuming the plastic bag is used once, but i've always reused them, sometimes had the same bags for 10 years
however i have never re-used a paper bag because they are awfully loud and cannot be compressed. it is the worst kind of bag.
Re: Just Bury Your Trash
#14The argument that is pro-polyethylene plastic bags over cotton completely ignores the source: Renewable plants that are grown and harvested, vs. finite fossil fuels extracted from the Earth and refined. > Instead of a simple blowing and sealing process, the cotton must be made into yarn, woven into fabric, prepared, dried, sized, dyed, and finished, which takes around 1,725 megajoules, around 3,050 times as much ener…
The energy to make the cotton bags presumably also involves lots of drilling and extracting, at least currently.
Re: Just Bury Your Trash
#15I don't remember energy use being the problem with plastic bags? It was plastic bags being absolutely everywhere in the environment. Streets, parks, trees. Wrapped around anything sticking out of the ground. On your face on a windy day. Pollution is the problem with plastic. Probably health, too, now that microplastics are being recognized as an issue.
Every winter in my city, once the leaves all fell, our trees would be draped in shredded plastic bags. Banning single use plastic bags has done a significant amount to beautify this place.
When visiting Seattle for the first time my mom was simultaneously outraged at the lack of plastic bags and the recycling bins everywhere, and also in awe at how clean the city was. Never did the two thoughts cross each other in her head
Re: Just Bury Your Trash
#16Not every place has space for landfills... which is why we often ship trash over to low-income countries.
Re: Just Bury Your Trash
#17I think using a cotton bag 173 times to beat plastic bags and a mug 1,000 times to beat disposable cups sounds completely reasonable.
thats assuming the plastic bag is used once, but i've always reused them, sometimes had the same bags for 10 years however i have never re-used a paper bag because they are awfully loud and cannot be compressed. it is the worst kind of bag.
I reused all my grocery store plastic bags for disposing of cat litter and other trash. When those bags went away I had to start buying new plastic bags for the first time.
Re: Just Bury Your Trash
#18I don't remember energy use being the problem with plastic bags? It was plastic bags being absolutely everywhere in the environment. Streets, parks, trees. Wrapped around anything sticking out of the ground. On your face on a windy day. Pollution is the problem with plastic. Probably health, too, now that microplastics are being recognized as an issue.
Every winter in my city, once the leaves all fell, our trees would be draped in shredded plastic bags. Banning single use plastic bags has done a significant amount to beautify this place.
They were also so damn cheap that clerks would bag EVERYTHING without asking, so they not only covered the streets like you describe, but often after offering no actual utility to begin with.
Re: Just Bury Your Trash
#19I don’t understand how plastic bags for “100 years at current rates” is an argument FOR its longevity/being fine?
Yes… I don't think the author is thinking on a long enough time horizon.
I'm curious what happens to these landfill sites in 100, 1000 and 10k years. Do they inevitably break down and leak into the water table? Do they eventually stop off-gassing and become inert? Do they become fossilized layers of sediment on a long enough horizon? If we maintain our current waste levels, how much land is required by the year 3000?
Re: Just Bury Your Trash
#20If a country burns coal. It should burn trash first, before the coal.
Absolutely, but green activists are actively fighting against burning trash. This needs to stop. Even if a country doesn't burn coal it should still burn trash instead of sending it to poor countries. People need to take responsibility for the trash that they generate.
Yeah, burning trash isn't a great answer