Stomach of Dead Whale Contained 'Nothing but Nonstop Plastic'
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Re: Stomach of Dead Whale Contained 'Nothing but Nonstop Plastic'
#2Not sure much can be done here without global investment and adherence to never dumping plastics that are not biodegradable.
The solution must be possible, but finding the will and the support to convince every country in the world to switch sounds incredibly tough.
The US could flex its economic muscle here and say that it will not accept products from abroad unless they're packaged according to its new standards within the next 5 years. And of course adhere to the standards internally as well to take a global lead on this issue.
Re: Stomach of Dead Whale Contained 'Nothing but Nonstop Plastic'
#3Just like Climate Change, oceanic plastic pollution is a case of Tragedy of the commons. I can separate my waste and recycle as much as I want (and I do!) but it’s all useless if a random idiot proceeds to dump my weekly household recycling output into a river and call it a day.
This is nothing that can be solved with personal initiative and responsibility; it requires international regulation and enforcement. There’s no other way
Re: Stomach of Dead Whale Contained 'Nothing but Nonstop Plastic'
#4Third grade me believed that my recycling got recycled. But it didn’t. We paid extra taxes for corrupt deals to get it dumped in the ocean. That was my plastic that killed the whale. Why did they lie to me? I did always wonder where all the recycling plants were. Would it really have been worse if we had put it in the landfill?
Re: Stomach of Dead Whale Contained 'Nothing but Nonstop Plastic'
#5Isn't it going as intended Ballen whales have bad design, their filter mouth is used for filtering plankton out of the sea water, now they are vunerable to plastics.
Re: Stomach of Dead Whale Contained 'Nothing but Nonstop Plastic'
#6"According to the U.N. Environment Programme, some 9 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year. According to a 2017 study from the environmental group Ocean Conservancy, more than half of that waste comes from just five countries in East and Southeast Asia — China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam."
Does anyone know how this fits in with plastic 'recycling'? These nations either were or are big importers of waste plastic.
I don't really want to separate out my waste, only for it to be dumped in the ocean somewhere else.
Re: Stomach of Dead Whale Contained 'Nothing but Nonstop Plastic'
#7Why hasn’t Amazon, Costco, or Walmart used their clout to effect a positive change? Have you seen all the plastic and unnecessary packaging in the goods they sell. The size of the packaging relative to the actual product is so ridiculous sometimes.
Re: Stomach of Dead Whale Contained 'Nothing but Nonstop Plastic'
#8Not sure much can be done here without global investment and adherence to never dumping plastics that are not biodegradable. The solution must be possible, but finding the will and the support to convince every country in the world to switch sounds incredibly tough. The US could flex its economic muscle here and say that it will not accept products from abroad unless they're packaged according to its new standards wi…
> global investment and adherence to never dumping plastics that are not biodegradable.
Or not producing the unnecessary packaging in the first place. We really don't need every single cucumber wrapped in its own plastic film. (Like it's common in the shops recently...) Lots of other packaging is completely useless as well.
Re: Stomach of Dead Whale Contained 'Nothing but Nonstop Plastic'
#9Just like Climate Change, oceanic plastic pollution is a case of Tragedy of the commons. I can separate my waste and recycle as much as I want (and I do!) but it’s all useless if a random idiot proceeds to dump my weekly household recycling output into a river and call it a day. This is nothing that can be solved with personal initiative and responsibility; it requires international regulation and enforcement. There’…
I disagree. Tragedy of the Commons is a situation that is about the management of wildlife and natural resources for the purposes of maximizing yield, with the lesson being regulated consumption results in maximal natural harvest. Pollution is just a negative economic externality, or consequence of an action that is unseen by the participants, where more pollution is always worse. Unfortunately, no one owns the oceans, and the normal ways for resolving externalities don't work without an aggrieved property owner.
Re: Stomach of Dead Whale Contained 'Nothing but Nonstop Plastic'
#10"According to the U.N. Environment Programme, some 9 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year. According to a 2017 study from the environmental group Ocean Conservancy, more than half of that waste comes from just five countries in East and Southeast Asia — China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam." Does anyone know how this fits in with plastic 'recycling'? These nations either were or ar…
We seem to be producing 8 billion tons [1], so 9 million ending up in the ocean is sadly predictable, even assuming earnest recycling efforts.
[1]https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/plastic-produced...