Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 318 posts

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#161

Post by [deleted] »

cageface wrote: post #160
toomuchtodo wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true (whole food carbs vs processed food). Carbs are carbs, and should be avoided as much as possible (no more than 20-30g/day).

This is nonsense. The healthiest populations in the world eat large volumes of carbs and have for millenia. Lumping all carbohydrates under the bucket term "carbs" makes as much sense as lumping all drugs under a single term. Eating complex, unrefined carbs is overall the healthiest way to get the calories you need to keep your body fueled.

[deleted]

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#162

Post by TaylorAlexander »

mikepurvis wrote: post #153
nostromo wrote: post #109

A small number of countries are responsible for the majority of plastic in the ocean. China is far and away the worst offender: https://infographic.statista.com/normal/chartoftheday_12211_... https://www.iswa.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Calendar_2011_03_...

The west benefits from a robust system for handling and landfilling waste. Our responsibility as far as the ocean is in modelling and exporting that culture to nations where the handling systems are not in place. I see this as similar to how the culture of smoking has been "exported" to places where there isn't nearly the same infrastructure present to limit access for kids, prevent second hand smoke exposure, and he…

In that vein, I’ve noticed how little many seemingly progressive companies care about plastic waste. Lots of products that I would think are meant to cater to a progressive, “green” crowd use thick packaging apparently to give the product a premium feel. Hint brand water is one example, and a bag of Forager chips I had recently did this too. The thick plastic gives the product a premium feel but is utterly destructive to the earth. However the negative effects are rarely witnessed by either the producers or the consumers, and so they both benefit from the fictional belief that this behavior is okay.

I don’t mean to single out just these manufacturers, as all profit seeking organizations seem to behave in this way where the harms of their actions are quietly ignored. Consumers buy in to this equally, or make some off hand remark about the waste and keep on going. It’s a cultural issue for sure, and I agree that exporting this way of life to places even less equipped to handle it is yet another of those unseen harms we all happily allow ourselves to ignore.

My hope is to combat all these issues by fighting to change our culture at home to one that is radically waste free. We can use the privilege that got us in to this position to help get out of it. We can learn to be waste free. Unfortunately we’re hooked on the disposable culture bad, and I’m not sure if we’ll ever get ourselves off it. We could, but time will tell if we care enough and are creative enough to do it.

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#163

Post by sophistication »

orky56 wrote: post #156
woogiewonka wrote: post #151

As an individual who wants to make the biggest impact on this issue, what are my options? I am a UX/UI designer and I wonder what I could do to help rid the world of microplastics. I was thinking off the top of my head: 1. Write a letter to every company that uses exorbitant amount plastic in it's product or packaging (tons of them here in Japan) and try to make them aware of the issue (appeal through emotions - thei…

I think it will be a tough sell to go after companies directly as an individual. Unless you are influential yourself, they will only take notice from an entity that dictates or shapes policy. It might be more beneficial to offer your services, perhaps pro-bono, to researchers like the ones cited in the article or to a non-profit with a similar mission. Your effort and hard work can be significantly higher levered wit…

Generally, the highest impact of any individual is mostly minior (of course the collective actions matter, but you are mostly bound to be a tiny gear in massive cultural processes that are nearly out of our control). To increase impact, you need to increase ~net worth. The most effective way of doing that is to ascend existing hierarchies even though that is massively biased by nepotism, looks and imperfect evaluation abilities; but, hey, that's the best we can get out of a system of distributed responsibilities and provided that all alternatives seem to diverge into authoritarianism. It is excessively rare to find alternative ways of having an impact.

If nobody tried, changes would of course occur much less often. So there is that.

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#164

Post by woogiewonka »

sophistication wrote: post #163
orky56 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it will be a tough sell to go after companies directly as an individual. Unless you are influential yourself, they will only take notice from an entity that dictates or shapes policy. It might be more beneficial to offer your services, perhaps pro-bono, to researchers like the ones cited in the article or to a non-profit with a similar mission. Your effort and hard work can be significantly higher levered wit…

Generally, the highest impact of any individual is mostly minior (of course the collective actions matter, but you are mostly bound to be a tiny gear in massive cultural processes that are nearly out of our control). To increase impact, you need to increase ~net worth. The most effective way of doing that is to ascend existing hierarchies even though that is massively biased by nepotism, looks and imperfect evaluatio…

I don't believe this. I think humans are capable of rapid change if appealed to their emotions in a powerful way. I think kids are the key to this and I am willing to try it. Imagine if 1000 people wrote urgent messages that actually reached these people who have significant control over how things are produced - that has to make some impact!

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#165

Post by Coincoin »

delecti wrote: post #43
robotkdick wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because plastic is so cheap, producers will pay the tax, continue using plastic, and pass the costs onto consumers. Given the higher cost of other materials, changing consumer behavior (which is not easy, but it's happening right now, and achievable through further exposure and education) may be the only way to change producers' behavior. While a tax seems like an easy fix, it may also cause the government to come to…

> While a tax seems like an easy fix, it may also cause the government to come to rely on income from plastic acting as a deterrent to law-making which discourages the use of plastics. I don't know how common such a thing is, but in Washington state if a tax is labeled as a "fee", it must be earmarked for a specific purpose. If we put a "plastic fee" on products packaged with single-use plastics, and then mandated th…

Then they are going to make the plastic package part of a cheap accessory for whatever they are selling. They are already doing that to boast the feature list of their products: "Practical widget holder included!"

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#167

Post by jacobolus »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #162
mikepurvis wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The west benefits from a robust system for handling and landfilling waste. Our responsibility as far as the ocean is in modelling and exporting that culture to nations where the handling systems are not in place. I see this as similar to how the culture of smoking has been "exported" to places where there isn't nearly the same infrastructure present to limit access for kids, prevent second hand smoke exposure, and he…

In that vein, I’ve noticed how little many seemingly progressive companies care about plastic waste. Lots of products that I would think are meant to cater to a progressive, “green” crowd use thick packaging apparently to give the product a premium feel. Hint brand water is one example, and a bag of Forager chips I had recently did this too. The thick plastic gives the product a premium feel but is utterly destructiv…

Products like chips should be forced to use biodegradable bags (whether wax paper, bioplastics, ...). Similarly, disposable drinking straws, cutlery, the little wrappers they come in, etc. should be biodegradable.

At most it might cost a few cents more per unit, but when millions of them get dumped in a river somewhere, they won’t stay there permanently.

Trying to eliminate packaging altogether is hopeless at this point, I’d wager.

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#168

Post by toomuchtodo »

jacobolus wrote: post #167
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that vein, I’ve noticed how little many seemingly progressive companies care about plastic waste. Lots of products that I would think are meant to cater to a progressive, “green” crowd use thick packaging apparently to give the product a premium feel. Hint brand water is one example, and a bag of Forager chips I had recently did this too. The thick plastic gives the product a premium feel but is utterly destructiv…

Products like chips should be forced to use biodegradable bags (whether wax paper, bioplastics, ...). Similarly, disposable drinking straws, cutlery, the little wrappers they come in, etc. should be biodegradable. At most it might cost a few cents more per unit, but when millions of them get dumped in a river somewhere, they won’t stay there permanently. Trying to eliminate packaging altogether is hopeless at this po…

Pepsico's SunChips use a biodegradable bag [1], so it is possible.

[1] https://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2014/03/18/pepsis-biodegradabl...

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#169

Post by whycombinater »

Instead of trying to optimize every last variable to maximize population and minimize side effects, it seems much more reliable and simple to minimize population. So many problems would be solved with 1% of the population. Think of the traffic improvements!

Let's go for laws that limit children to under 47 per family.

Re: Tiny Plastic Is Everywhere

#170

Post by sebastianavina »

whycombinater wrote: post #169

Instead of trying to optimize every last variable to maximize population and minimize side effects, it seems much more reliable and simple to minimize population. So many problems would be solved with 1% of the population. Think of the traffic improvements! Let's go for laws that limit children to under 47 per family.

thanos did nothing wrong!
Post reply on HN