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85% of People Want Global Ban on Single-Use Plastics

worldwildlife.org

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Re: 85% of People Want Global Ban on Single-Use Plastics

#141

Post by orhmeh09 »

dumbo-octopus wrote: post #85
lowkey_ wrote: post #41

I was skeptical of whether it was representative of 85% of the global population, or just the first-world. I've often thought (and heard that) environmental concerns are secondary to economic, and that people in less prosperous countries don't care as much about environmental concerns as people in first-world countries who are secure in most areas of their lives. Surprisingly, this data says the opposite! Sample size…

The response rate is so low as to be entirely meaningless. If you're content with sampling only 0.000001% of the population, you can get any results you want by simply selecting for the people who care the most by taking a bunch of time to lecture the individual if they seem like they'd vote the other way (oh no, you have to leave? but we didn't even have time to submit your vote yet... :( ), and wording the question…

What do you think is a good sample size? How would you arrive at one?

Re: 85% of People Want Global Ban on Single-Use Plastics

#142

Post by Jackim »

wannacboatmovie wrote: post #129
londons_explore wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poorer parts of the world have (typically) much worse problems with litter. Poorer nations typically have no/few refuse collection services, and people often just pile up and burn their own refuse or dump it in rivers to take it away. That means poorer people see directly the litter rather than an 'out of sight, out of mind' approach.

> Poorer nations typically have no/few refuse collection services, and people often just pile up and burn their own refuse or dump it in rivers to take it away. Would it not make sense then if they had a container with which to collect and responsibly dispose of the refuse? A plastic bag perhaps?

Or maybe we could tackle the root of the problem, avoid waste that doesn't decompose on the human timescale.

Re: 85% of People Want Global Ban on Single-Use Plastics

#143

Post by kragen »

gleenn wrote: post #99
htk wrote: post #21

"Ban unnecessary single-use plastic products most likely to become plastic pollution, e.g. shopping bags, cutlery, cups & plates" Such a loaded question just weakens the point. That's why it's hard to take these efforts seriously.

I kind of agree. I feel like the word "unnecessary" in that sentence guts it. Of course we should ban unnecessary and wasteful things. If the question was "should we ban plastic bags completely in favor of re-usable ones" might get a very different answer. I would definitely say yes to the first question but I also sometimes forget to bring my reusable bags to the store and then definitely always get the disposable o…

> Of course we should ban unnecessary and wasteful things

i strongly disagree with this; in almost all cases, the choice of what is unnecessary and wasteful should rest with the individual person most affected by it, not some kind of political authority or social consensus. even when it's legitimately a question of public policy—alcohol, for example, an addictive drug that causes massive amounts of crime and something like 5% of the world's human deaths—pigovian taxes are far preferable to outright bans. alcohol is a useful cleaning fluid, for example, and an effective antidote to ethylene glycol poisoning (though in rich countries safer antidotes are now available)

kim jong un has banned unnecessary and wasteful hairstyles, which is the road down which 'of course we should ban unnecessary and wasteful things' generally leads

i find it rather horrifying how casually people promote totalitarian ideologies like this nowadays

Re: 85% of People Want Global Ban on Single-Use Plastics

#144

Post by ganzuul »

jjcm wrote: post #91

I don't want a ban, I want a tax on them. There's a strong use for single use plastics - medical goods being one of the important ones that I highly suspect people don't want a ban of. They define these as "necessary" versus "unnecessary" in their poll (ie the 85% figure is specifically for "ban unnecessary single-use plastic products, e.g., shopping bags, cutlery, cups & plates"). Things get murky really quickly whe…

The tax might not have to be monetary. Putting geolocation QR codes on stuff could help mitigate the super-polluters by taxing perception.

Re: 85% of People Want Global Ban on Single-Use Plastics

#145

Post by rkagerer »

Clubber wrote: post #52
Skytram wrote: post #16

Yes yes instead of single use bags at the store I now get more durable plastic bags that I throw away after using once. Well done.

If the grocery store made plastic bags that didn't have holes in them all the time, they make a good pooper-scooper bag and thus reusable.

Yeah, I used to keep all my grocery bags and use them as garbage bags, at least that got a reuse out of them.

Re: 85% of People Want Global Ban on Single-Use Plastics

#146

Post by lolinder »

lowkey_ wrote: post #41

I was skeptical of whether it was representative of 85% of the global population, or just the first-world. I've often thought (and heard that) environmental concerns are secondary to economic, and that people in less prosperous countries don't care as much about environmental concerns as people in first-world countries who are secure in most areas of their lives. Surprisingly, this data says the opposite! Sample size…

Keep in mind that in the methodology [0] the survey company emphasized that "the samples in Brazil, Chile, [...] Mexico, [...] and Uganda are more urban, more educated, and/or more affluent than the general population." It was an entirely online survey, so respondents in poorer places are more likely to be those with internet access and the spare time to be poking around on the internet.

If you restricted the survey in wealthy countries to only the comparatively affluent I would expect you'd see similar percentages as we have here in poorer countries.

I do love that Japan is such a major outlier (only 60% say it's important). They don't have the litter problem that the rest of us have constantly reminding us about the problem.

[0] https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/...

Re: 85% of People Want Global Ban on Single-Use Plastics

#147

Post by AlexandrB »

L-four wrote: post #84

If we could get the total cost of product disposal built into the checkout price. I think single use plastics would solve it's self along with a litany of other garbage disposal problems.

While I agree in principle, I don't think this quite solves it. For example, disposable bags are extremely cheap to dispose of - they compress well and would take up minimal landfill space. The problem is how many of them "escape" between the initial purchase and getting to the landfill. How do you include that in the cost?

Re: 85% of People Want Global Ban on Single-Use Plastics

#148

Post by dinkleberg »

legitster wrote: post #50

I'm actually pretty curious how they conducted the survey - you can't usually get 80% of people on a phone to admit they use the bathroom, let alone agree with a complex policy proposal. The attached report is high on charts but low on details.

Yeah I was hoping to see some more details on that. I'm in favor of a ban like this, but as with every big move like this, there are negative consequences that come with it (everything has trade offs).

I am very curious how they framed the question to get such a high percentage of agreement. Surely this ban would result, at least in the short term, in higher prices for a lot of goods.

Re: 85% of People Want Global Ban on Single-Use Plastics

#150

Post by drivebyhooting »

AlexandrB wrote: post #30
emiliobumachar wrote: post #9

Crap. Most of the substitutes have a bigger ecological footprint, even if you don't care at all about cost and comfort. Those reusable shopping bags need to be actually reused , several dozen if not hundreds of times, to be ecological. How many times have you used your last one?

> How many times have you used your last one? Every shopping trip for 4 years now. It tore, but my partner was able to patch it since it's made of pretty good quality fabric.

Have you smelled them? Do you wash them?
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