Plastics are poisoning us • Hacker News Board

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#431

Post by com2kid » Wed, Jun 28, 2023, 6:41 PM UTC

reaperman wrote: post #58

com2kid wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I inherited my fabric shopping bags from my grandmother, she made some of them 30 years ago. They are also many times thicker than the cotton bags you can buy in stores, so they might very well need another couple generations before they are carbon neutral!

Yeah much of the problem is that people aren't currently willing to change their lifestyle to embrace the "reduce" and "reuse" part of "reduce, reuse, recycle" triad. They only know two options: "Paper or plastic?" because the vast majority of people don't want to bring their own bags from home to the store. Or their own cup to Starbucks. Or their own to-go food box to the pizza place. I'm trying to imagine how DoorD…

> I'm trying to imagine how DoorDash would even work without single-use plastics? Maybe we'd have standardized reusable containers with deposits on them that could be returned to a central location for $1-2 refunds per container, where they'd get sanitized and re-distributed via restaurant supply companies.

That reminds me of how much better to-go containers are in some other countries! I was blown away by the quality of to-go containers when I ordered delivery in Beijing, the containers could easily have been used more than once.

I actually would be interested in seeing what a world with zero disposable packaging would look like. Imagine if everything you bought at the grocery store used packaging that you had to return afterward. Think peanut butter put in jars that get returned and cleaned.

Related, I remember when Costco ketchup came in giant gallon sized aluminum cans.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#432

Post by asoneth » Wed, Jun 28, 2023, 6:45 PM UTC

yulker wrote: post #423

asoneth wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been learning how to season, cook with, and clean cast iron. As someone who did not grow up using it it’s definitely not intuitive. The other challenge is that I either have to lock it away or teach everyone else in the household how to care for it. At various points in my life I’ve had coatings ruined by roommates, partners, guests, and housekeepers who did things that seemed perfectly sensible like letting i…

Soapy water won't break down the molecularly bonded fat and iron on your cast iron. If you mistake leftover grease for seasoning, then sure, soapy water will get rid of it. The trick to not sticking on steel pan is just preheating it properly. A drop of water should dance on a properly heated steel pan and things won't stick. Just let it get hot enough.

> Soapy water won't break down the molecularly bonded fat and iron on your cast iron.

In that case I'm not sure what the exact mechanism was. But I know that after others have used/cleaned a seemingly well-seasoned pan I've had to deal with chips, flakes, and/or rust and had to go back through the whole annoying seasoning process. And of course it's entirely possible that despite carefully following instructions that I've done the seasoning wrong -- chemistry is the only class I ever flunked.

> A drop of water should dance on a properly heated steel pan and things won't stick.

My partner made a similar recommendation. It sounds trivially easy but for whatever reason I have not managed to make it work. Given that cast iron (generally) works fine for me I've had minimal motivation to learn the idiosyncrasies of another material, though I would like to give it another shot at some point.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#433

Post by hirundo » Wed, Jun 28, 2023, 6:53 PM UTC

earthling8118 wrote: post #429

hirundo wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't take your skill in this for granted. It's a gift. I've been using cast iron pans sporadically for four decades, following all of the common advice, and failing magnificently every time. I still use one occasionally to put a crust on a steak ... and then use a small piece of chainmail[1] to defeat the klingons. It's not that I don't believe you. It just doesn't work that way in my pan on my stove with my…

I would probably give up on cooking if I had to buy a new set of pans every year. That sounds entirely ridiculous. It's seriously not some special gift to be able to cook on a carbon steel, stainless steel, or cast iron pan. I've even trained people who have never cooked before in a single cooking session. Were they perfect right away? Nope. But it isn't that difficult and learned quickly after a few solo attempts

I cook 99 out of 100 of my meals, and 9 out of 10 meals I cook in a small counter-top air-fryer. The whole gadget costs less than a good pan. That 10th meal is probably eggs in a non-stick pan, so that pan lasts years longer now.

I bought a nice new range right before I discovered the air-fryer, and it now functions mostly as a device for holding up the air-fryer.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#434

Post by luxuryballs » Wed, Jun 28, 2023, 6:57 PM UTC

tfourb wrote: post #320

luxuryballs wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

climate change can’t be prevented, it’s a natural oscillating cycle on a grand scale, but not making plastic is totally on us, though perhaps we will all freeze or boil long before drowning the ecosystem in plastic, there is some real bitter irony in being hopeful that nature can take us out before we do even more harm, if it can’t then I guess Earth will have proven itself not so resilient, but I suspect on a long e…

Man made (hint hint) climate change was first described more than 50 years ago and while the window of cheap opportunity arguably has closed by now, it could easily have been addressed without too much cost up until about the year 2000 or so and somewhat cheaply until about 2010. Most countries are now making concerted efforts to address it but now it costs a huge amount of money and we will experience some severe co…

if there really was such a clear and obvious and dire threat that could have been mitigated it likely would have been, but this theory has been repeatedly debunked by climate scientists, it’s just that many of us only hear one side of the story because our media (hint hint) has been captured by political interests that want convenient black/white fear mongering they can use to manipulate the flow of money and regulation to help them direct power and wealth toward their allies, interests, investments, etc

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#435

Post by stjohnswarts » Wed, Jun 28, 2023, 6:57 PM UTC

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #148

pvaldes wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8 -> copper is toxic. People with some genetic traits will suffer cirrhosis and shouldn't use it for water storage. Cooking on copper pots specially should be avoided. Iron and Aluminum are safer.

Or just use glass... completely non reactive, fully recyclable. The perfect container.

glass is hard to pack around and easy to break.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#436

Post by wahnfrieden » Wed, Jun 28, 2023, 6:58 PM UTC

monktastic1 wrote: post #313

wahnfrieden wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insurrection or revolution doesn’t fit either of those options you gave

You can insurrect or revolt from either of those two conditions. My experience (not with country-scale insurrection, of course...) is that the results will be drastically different. These aren't things you do instead of acting, but attitudes and habits you develop through all action.

Usually people make your point to criticize any social/worker movement that "divides" people or is "anti" something

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#437

Post by asoneth » Wed, Jun 28, 2023, 6:59 PM UTC

earthling8118 wrote: post #429

hirundo wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't take your skill in this for granted. It's a gift. I've been using cast iron pans sporadically for four decades, following all of the common advice, and failing magnificently every time. I still use one occasionally to put a crust on a steak ... and then use a small piece of chainmail[1] to defeat the klingons. It's not that I don't believe you. It just doesn't work that way in my pan on my stove with my…

I would probably give up on cooking if I had to buy a new set of pans every year. That sounds entirely ridiculous. It's seriously not some special gift to be able to cook on a carbon steel, stainless steel, or cast iron pan. I've even trained people who have never cooked before in a single cooking session. Were they perfect right away? Nope. But it isn't that difficult and learned quickly after a few solo attempts

I've taught people to juggle or even (barely) ride a unicycle after a lesson or two. That doesn't mean those aren't difficult skills to acquire.

Plus, many people who are learning do not have the privilege of an experienced teacher. Relying on instructions, videos, and trial & error takes more time and energy for most people. I agree with you that it's worth the effort though.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#438

Post by namaria » Wed, Jun 28, 2023, 7:03 PM UTC

ericpauley wrote: post #414

mrybczyn wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4. Biking - way more energy efficient - you'll get more MPG (Miles-Per-Gnocci).

Depending on the carbon footprint of the food you eat to power that bicycle the effective MPG may actually be quite poor. A e-bike has lower emissions than a cyclist powered by lentils.

You should look into the battery supply chain. It's quite horrible for the environment. There's no way of consuming that will save us, we need to consume drastically less. We won't turn society around before hitting rock bottom because that's who we are.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#439

Post by namaria » Wed, Jun 28, 2023, 7:06 PM UTC

yetihehe wrote: post #94

mrweasel wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn't be washing your car in the driveway. Even if you use environmentally friendly soap, or no soap, the water coming of the car isn't exactly clean. Professional car wash places are required (depending on location) to collect and dispose of their waste water in a safe way. When you wash the car in the driveway, the waste water will either go into the ground or the storm drains, neither of which will ensure…

I solved this problem in minimalist way - I wash my car maybe twice a year. It sits in my driveway in rain anyway because my garage is waiting for some spare time so that I can finally reuse all that pallets I collected since last year (mostly clean pallets I've already made some nice yard furniture for myself and family, all those pallets already have planned use but I don't have enough time).

If you have a whole half ton of energy guzzling metal machine just to move you around town, are you minimalist?

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#440

Post by namaria » Wed, Jun 28, 2023, 7:08 PM UTC

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #300

sfpotter wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re really a minimalist, you don’t own a car

outside of nyc, this is going to have a major impact on quality of life. don't let perfection be the enemy of good.

We're gonna preserve our quality of life one exception at a time all the way to societal collapse, it seems. How much quality of life can we have when billions are on the move due to heat dead zones, collapsing one government after another?