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India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

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Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#111

Post by Kluny »

WalterBright wrote: post #28
Maarten88 wrote: post #13

Rwanda also has this policy, since 2008, and they enforce it. The country is very clean, it looks different than other African countries (and countries like the US), just because there is no plastic rubbish everywhere. I think this is a very good policy, and would welcome it at home. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/rwanda...

My father told me that American highways used to be lined with trash until it was made illegal to throw trash out the window.

There was this scene in Mad Men where Don Draper, Betty Draper and the kids go out for a picnic in the new family car. They eat lunch in a grassy field, then when they're done, they pack up their basket and blanket, leaving the beer cans, food wrappers, empty bottles, plastic cutlery, and chicken bones scattered on the grass.

That scene shocked and horrified me more than all the sexism, racism, and homophobia combined.

Edit: saw the other comments, looks like I wasn't the only one affected by that scene.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#112

Post by jimmywanger »

bendermon wrote: post #80
SixSigma wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> along with detergent and toxic toilet cleaners. don't forget corpses http://www.planetcustodian.com/2015/10/19/8134/over-50-scary...

Corpses are biodegradable aren't they unless, it is that of superman. Good protein feed for the fish, birds, crocodiles. Instead of taking up real estate.

Not when you eat the animals that eat corpses afterwards. That's how you spread diseases, plus when animals eat human flesh, they leave bits floating in the water supply.

We bury people for a reason. Or we burn them, or leave them on the land to get eaten by animals, away from water supplies. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial)

The difference between what you're proposing is the difference between composting an animal corpse and then using it to fertilize your crops, or just grinding it up and spraying it all over your tomatoes.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#113

Post by Waterluvian »

wavefunction wrote: post #39
WalterBright wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My father told me that American highways used to be lined with trash until it was made illegal to throw trash out the window.

I've been told this too. There was a massive anti-littering campaign in the 1950s called "Keep America Beautiful" and it was ironically initiated by the packaging industry[0]. [0] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2006/05/origins-anti-litter-...

I believe "Don't Mess With Texas" was also about littering.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#116

Post by vidoc »

anigbrowl wrote: post #100
vidoc wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the specific case of Rwanda, it's also important to realize that the plastic ban, as well as the universally celebrated higher participation of women in administration and politics are also fantastic PR of the regime essentially aimed at the West.

Dictatorial regimes that implement actually beneficial policies I can tolerate. Less good than a democracy in terms of social and political freedom, but better than dictatorships that don't implement any benign policies. That said my knowledge of African politics is limited to a few news articles a week so I can't form a meaningful opinion about how well or badly countries there are run except in really obvious cases…

> Dictatorial regimes that implement actually beneficial policies I can tolerate. Less good than a democracy in terms of social and political freedom, but better than dictatorships that don't implement any benign policies.

The policies are not really the problem actually, especially when they are, as you say, beneficial. In a perfect world where media coverage respects basic ethical rules of journalism, there shouldn't be any issue really. Unfortunately, in the case of Rwanda, I tend to see the magnifying glass systematically being put on 'favorable' PR-stuff like that, vs constitutional reform, mysterious disappearances of political dissidents of the regime (sometimes abroad), open support to militias in Congo. e.g: I wonder what someone on the receiving end of bullets in the Kivu region would think of the hagiographic article of the guardian.

Ultimately, the survival of most of this kind of regime depends heavily on the way they are perceived globally, undoubtedly, the Rwandan regime beautifully manufactures its image.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#118

Post by sqeaky »

tgb wrote: post #71
sqeaky wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think its ironic at all. Some American industries actually do attempt to pro-actively fix issues to insure long term profitability. Consider groups like UL or ESRB, no government intervention there. I like the example of pesticides. The are some really nasty pesticides that aren't banned by law, but there are industry groups that work to reduce and effectively ban the ones that cause birth defects and obvious…

Admittedly ESRB was formed after the government (senator Joe Lieberman, famously) threatened to regulate the video game industry if they didn't form such a voluntary group.

The ESRB was one of many possible responses, it could have been a different response. Like suing Joe or bribing him or his opponent.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#119

Post by sqeaky »

XJOKOLAT wrote: post #86
sqeaky wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think its ironic at all. Some American industries actually do attempt to pro-actively fix issues to insure long term profitability. Consider groups like UL or ESRB, no government intervention there. I like the example of pesticides. The are some really nasty pesticides that aren't banned by law, but there are industry groups that work to reduce and effectively ban the ones that cause birth defects and obvious…

Self-generated codes-of-good-practice usually emerge from out of the shadow of a big governmental stick on the horizon.

That is certainly one view of it, but there is a clear difference between groups like UL and The Tobacco industry.

I am not trying to that everything will work out in some kind of pure capitalist ideal utopia, because I think it clearly won't. Rather I think some industries have enough decent people in them that they can find good ways to increase profit and increase long term good will.

People here make is sound like the ESRB was the only thing stopping video games being legislated out of existence. When the game industry chose to do it, they did it to attempt to make it easy to wholesale games correctly so walmart could confidentally buy games and not mix in porn and sex stores could readily get get all the AO games they wanted, this certainly prevented a few embarrassing situations with porn being mixed in with kid toys.

The video game industry could have done something else; a purely selfish and stupidly self motivated industry might have sued the government, hired lobbyists, or made illegal back room deals some other way like it seems apparent. Big Pharma, Big Sugar, the "Military Industrial Complex", Big Oil and countless other Big whatever get accused of this all the time and often with decent evidence.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#120

Post by icantdrive55 »

theparanoid wrote: post #108

Here in California single use plastic bags are banned. Now it's a pain, at checkout you either have to tell them how many multiuse bags to charge or bring bags from home. No so many years ago paper bags were common and what I used. Paper is great, it's biodegradable, renewable, and convenient.

In my town they banned plastic. (People grumbled because their wasen't a problem with litter here, but it might end up in the ocean? So--o.k.)

We still have plastic tooth picks everywhere. Those little white tooth picks. ( I knew the spoiled brat who's took daddy's idea, along with unlimited funds, and is a 1 perecenter now. (It was so hard watching dad give this kid anything he wanted, including a yacht in high school. He gave him some great dental product ideas, encouraged him with funds, new toys, to stick with the products. When he found college boring, he went back to the nice office dad rented, along with staff, and made a few calls--calls dad researched, and they sold tooth picks/dental picks.)

O.K. We were forced to buy paper bags. I'll bottle up my envy.

At first, people refused, but after being told, "You have to leave you back pack at the front of the store under the watchful eye of Mr. IdontgiveadambecauseIhatethiscompany; we just bought the paper bags. I still try to bring on a reusable bag though, but 95% just buy the 5 cent bag. I don't want to know where the money goes.

I'm waiting for the first lawsuit. "Why are women allowed to bring on whatever purse/bag they desire, but I can't bring in a small back pack? A pack with a few thousand of gear in it?"

The paper bag companies must be doing backflips?

The whole store is filled with plastic, I kinda don't get the ban. The amount of plastic packagaging that goes into theft prevention, and advertising is mind boggling, but we are demonizing the plastic bag?

What would Dr. 350/hr. say? Projection? Or, a carefully designed plan to divert our attention to the blatant problems of manufacturing? Yes--most of the crap we eat is manufactured too. We--I am not we. I am poor. Maybe that's the only advatage to not having much money? You can't eat too terrible, or buy too much?

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