Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021 • Hacker News Board

Re: Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021

#101

Post by beached_whale » Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 9:53 PM UTC

abeppu wrote: post #77

beached_whale wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect there will be exemptions. But it is really amazing how much there is left over from medical waste.

But most people actively receive health care infrequently, compared to a daily or weekly cadence for consuming groceries or coffee or whatever. As a fraction of the plastic waste that a typical person generates, how much is medical?

One does have to watch that the solution isn't worse. Plastic packaging is cheap because it takes very little people, resources, and energy to make.

A lot of the issue is that we haven't been really using market approaches to deal with it. If the creators where financially a physically responsible for the proper recycling, they would be motivated to use less and make it cheaper to reuse. The current recycling makes the problem a municipal one, in many places, who are ill equipped to deal with it... then we end up shipping it elsewhere.

Re: Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021

#102

Post by Deimorz » Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 10:14 PM UTC

This is from over a year ago.

There's some more recent info in this article from January 30: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/environment-canada-report-p...

Re: Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021

#103

Post by therealdrag0 » Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 10:16 PM UTC

mynegation wrote: post #62

Negitivefrags wrote: post #57

This movement is really dumb. Plastic pollution in the ocean is a problem, but it’s not the western countries causing it. There are 10 rivers that cause 90% of plastic pollution, and they are in Africa and Asia. Plastic in a landfill harms nobody. The worst part is that people somehow have this linked in thier mind with climate change, as in fixing plastic pollution is going to help with that. Well if anything, it’s…

It is not dumb. It is about setting an example. We cannot fix everything everywhere, but we can move the needle. Maybe a youth living near one of those 10 rivers, reading about Canada doing it, will become a member of parliament or a minister and will do something about it. Or not. Maybe here in Canada out of necessity we come up with smart solutions to replaces single use plastics that can be copied all over the wor…

We’ve been setting an Example of basic garbage management practices for some time.

Re: Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021

#104

Post by therealdrag0 » Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 10:20 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #76

fareesh wrote: post #29

I remember reading somewhere that some bottled product replaced plastic with glass, which weighs more, which led to an increase in trucks required, which led to more of a carbon footprint, which is also bad.

This is why a carbon tax makes a lot of sense. Increase the cost of doing the wrong thing and let the market decide.

And a recycling tax. Carbon isn’t the only externality we care about.

Re: Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021

#105

Post by BTCOG » Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 10:55 PM UTC

I find it interesting that nobody seems to know that hemp polymers and hemp bioplastics are readily available, and exist.

https://hempplastic.com/products/

I've held hemp plastic packaging in my hands in Denver, it works well. If we'd start ramping up the industrial hemp production it is also one of the best things for the entire planet for carbon neutral and even net negative in the long term. Cannabis is the highest consuming agricultural crop of CO2 on the planet. It grows at such an accelerated rate highly balances photosynthesis and quickly grows; eating CO2 like monsters. Turn the flower into cannabinoid extracts and foods, seed into food products, and all hemp stalk and pithe is then turned into bioplastics and hempcrete and various other wood products, like paper.

Re: Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021

#106

Post by BTCOG » Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 11:05 PM UTC

fareesh wrote: post #68

Is it possible that due to issues of politics and optics that serious scientists / engineers are unable to work on solutions like "hemp plastic"? Admittedly as a layperson I am guilty of wondering whether it is just one of those crazy ideas the marijuana enthusiasts are pushing, or whether it has any legitimate potential. Has this material been given any serious consideration?

It's very real and very much already exists. I've met a few biochemists who are manufacturing it in the Denver, Colorado area and it absolutely blows my mind that we are not growing thousands of acres of industrial hemp for both controlling CO2 and for all it's bioplastic, wood, and material products it can be making. Stop growing cotton. Stop using crude oil based plastics, and all products of the plant can be used in extracts for foods, oils, and stalk/pithe/flour can be made into paper products and hempcrete.

Re: Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021

#107

Post by BTCOG » Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 11:08 PM UTC

xkcd-sucks wrote: post #98

fareesh wrote: post #68

Is it possible that due to issues of politics and optics that serious scientists / engineers are unable to work on solutions like "hemp plastic"? Admittedly as a layperson I am guilty of wondering whether it is just one of those crazy ideas the marijuana enthusiasts are pushing, or whether it has any legitimate potential. Has this material been given any serious consideration?

Is this "hemp plastic" like polyethylene made from hemp feedstock, or is it something like reformed cellulose? And what makes hemp different from corn or soybeans in this application? There's active development and use of biomanufacturing of common chemicals because it has the potential to be much cheaper and less complicated than existing processes. For example, fermenting sugar directly into ethylene at room temper…

Quite a bit of difference from other plants. Hemp grows a very large woody stalk and can grow 6+ feet tall and resemble a small Christmas tree-sized pine tree in one season. Cannabis produces oils/sap much like a pine tree and these oils are super conducive to polymers. Soybeans do not, are tiny, and don't suck CO2 from the air like an air purifier.

Re: Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021

#108

Post by frosted-flakes » Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 11:54 PM UTC

spankalee wrote: post #46

rapind wrote: post #32

Can we all agree that plastic packaging has gotten ridiculous? If I buy toys for my kids they're 90% packaging, 10% toy... It's baffling. Who's the consumer demanding this?

Or sugar that used to come in cardboard boxes for decades now coming in plastic bags. And so many glass jars replaced by plastic.

I've only ever seen sugar available in paper sacks, like flour. Except powdered (icing) and brown sugar, which so come in bags, probably because they're a lot more moisture sensitive.

I've always wondered why some products are only available in glass jars, like jam. While some things used to be only in glass jars, but is now commonly plastic bottles (apple sauce, tomato sauce).

Interestingly, in the past couple of years, plastic peanut butter jars seem to have switched to opaque brown plastic, when they used to be clear. Is that because it's difficult to make clear products from recycled plastic?

Re: Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021

#109

Post by frosted-flakes » Sun, Jul 12, 2020, 11:58 PM UTC

grardb wrote: post #22

minerjoe wrote: post #2

Can we add cigarette filters to the list? If I had a penny for every ...

You'd have a bunch of currency that isn't really in circulation anymore, if my understanding of the Canadian penny is correct!

The penny is still worth one cent. It is actively being removed from circulation and isn't given as change, but you can still freely spend any you still have.

Re: Canada aims to ban single-use plastics by 2021

#110

Post by mthoms » Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 12:20 AM UTC

catalogia wrote: post #64

derefr wrote: post #16

Interesting side-note: here in Vancouver BC, we were full steam ahead on eliminating plastics (e.g. styrofoam take-out containers, plastic drinking straws, shopping bags, etc.) but that was seemingly all instantly reversed once social distancing started. I can understand the reversal of charging for shopping bags to encourage bringing reusable bags: reusable bags are potentially a disease vector. But what's with the…

> I can understand the reversal of charging for shopping bags to encourage bringing reusable bags: reusable bags are potentially a disease vector. I don't understand the rationale of not letting me bag my own groceries in my own bag. I'm not asking them to touch it, anymore than I ask them to touch my fabric jacket. Nor am I aware of any evidence of covid transmission through proximity to textile bags. The ban seems…

The bagging is done on a counter or conveyer belt by laying your bag down and then packing it. That surface isn't sanitized before the next customers' food items and/or bag touches the exact same surface.

Also note how the vast majority of reusable bags get transported: We compress them down with our hands and stuff them somewhere. Your hands have been all over the bags (unlike most parts of your jacket).

Maybe researchers will determine that it isn't a risky practice after all, but given that we don't know yet it seems like a perfectly reasonable precaution.

Not everyone is out to get you. The ban is not senseless, and the stores implementing it are not being unreasonable. Have you considered the possibility that maybe you're the one being unreasonable?