Would it be better if 500 companies produced 25% of all plastic waste?
Five Companies Produce Nearly 25 Percent of All Plastic Waste Worldwide
51–60 of 148 posts
Re: Five Companies Produce Nearly 25 Percent of All Plastic Waste Worldwide
#52Thinking that recycling would address the problem of plastic pollution is wishful thinking. Plastic recycles very poorly. Companies like plastic because it means thicker margins for them, environment be damned; the proper solution is not to buy into the “consumers should be recycling” narrative but to thin out their margins so that using more sustainable and recyclable materials is financially attractive again.
I try to get stuff in glass/aluminium bottles that I clean and reuse myself. It's not easy. Supermarkets is an immediate no-go (when I was young, our village supermarket sold Coke and Milk and other stuff from taps , so you just brought your own); now it's something impossible. But for local farmers, local springs etc it works well. Same for veg, fruit, meat, eggs etc; no plastic needed. Allows us to throw almost all…
Back in the day, my father worked as a researcher for a large, old dairy company. He was tasked with finding out what was environmentally friendly for packaging milk; whether they should start offering milk in washable glass bottles instead of their current cartons, for environmental reasons.
He found that the environmental impact created by the washing of the glass bottles was worse than the impact of the entire production and disposal cycle for the cartons. If you added in the production of the glass, the recycling of glass when it broke, and the extra impact from transport (less space due to not being able to pack as well, heavier) there was no competition at all - glass was way, way worse.
Plastic was a bit better than glass, and carton was the best available option. So they stayed with carton.
This was ~30 years ago, mind, so the equation may have changed. But I still find it important to check before deciding "Let's go glass" is the right option.
Re: Five Companies Produce Nearly 25 Percent of All Plastic Waste Worldwide
#53Good, but an unavoidably biased method. They could identify about half the waste plastic items, and 11% of those were identified as coming from Coca Cola, which has some of the most distinctive bottle shapes, so is probably more easily identified.
Re: Five Companies Produce Nearly 25 Percent of All Plastic Waste Worldwide
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>Companies like plastic because it means thicker margins for them Consumers like plastic because it is better than the alternatives.
I have met people who like to drink from glass, and people who buy things in plastic bottles because that’s literally the only option if you want to enjoy a drink or even just clean water. These are the two (non mutually exclusive) categories of people that I normally meet. Do you often meet people who specifically like plastic, as opposed to tolerating it?
I like plastic in that I prefer the lower cost and lower pollution and lower weight and lower breakability compared to glass.
Re: Five Companies Produce Nearly 25 Percent of All Plastic Waste Worldwide
#55Waste isn't inherently bad, littering is. It's not Coca Cola's fault that people throw away plastic bottles into the rainforest, oceans or other fragile ecosystems.
[deleted]
Re: Five Companies Produce Nearly 25 Percent of All Plastic Waste Worldwide
#56This article is pointless. The issue is what occurs with the waste after it is produced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%E2%80%93Philippines_was...
Re: Five Companies Produce Nearly 25 Percent of All Plastic Waste Worldwide
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with you, I think this is primarily an issue with selfish people littering the environment. I didn't like how the article framed it as a "companies are littering" thing, as if it's factory waste. Though... I also agree with the GP. It seems to be too hard to educate or enforce littering laws on consumers (edit: in some countries. Some other countries like Japan have better non-littering cultures). It might be…
When I was young and playing in wasteland we often came across broken glass bottles etc. Very dangerous. They were also regularly blamed as the source of wild fires.
Some people may disagree that the chance of your child taking a cut from glass while playing in an area with sharp glass debris is a milder option than your child having microplastic with all its xenoestrogens and other disruptors accumulating in body since before being born[0], especially considering that 1) not all glass pieces are sharp and 2) plastic can be sharp enough to cut your skin as well (I personally have received cuts, deep enough to spill blood, from plastic—as an adult), but to me the choice would be clear. Too bad I don’t get to make that choice—the ship has sailed and all we can do is try to clean up the existing mess and stop generating more of it.
[0] https://academic.oup.com/toxsci/article/199/1/81/7609801?log...
Re: Five Companies Produce Nearly 25 Percent of All Plastic Waste Worldwide
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was young and playing in wasteland we often came across broken glass bottles etc. Very dangerous. They were also regularly blamed as the source of wild fires.
Some people may disagree that the chance of your child taking a cut from glass while playing in an area with sharp glass debris is a milder option than your child having microplastic with all its xenoestrogens and other disruptors accumulating in body since before being born[0], especially considering that 1) not all glass pieces are sharp and 2) plastic can be sharp enough to cut your skin as well (I personally have…
[deleted]
Re: Five Companies Produce Nearly 25 Percent of All Plastic Waste Worldwide
#59Waste isn't inherently bad, littering is. It's not Coca Cola's fault that people throw away plastic bottles into the rainforest, oceans or other fragile ecosystems.
Waste is inherently bad (in that it is a downstream cost.)
Are faeces inherently bad? Many years of evolution selected that as the most efficient option for a digestive system.
Re: Five Companies Produce Nearly 25 Percent of All Plastic Waste Worldwide
#60Thinking that recycling would address the problem of plastic pollution is wishful thinking. Plastic recycles very poorly. Companies like plastic because it means thicker margins for them, environment be damned; the proper solution is not to buy into the “consumers should be recycling” narrative but to thin out their margins so that using more sustainable and recyclable materials is financially attractive again.
> Thinking that recycling would address the problem of plastic pollution is wishful thinking People putting their rubbish in the bin rather than throwing it in the nearest gutter / river / garden would get us 90% of the way there.
People who downvoted this should consider what happens in other countries. See eg:
https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=41165fec71bc817d&sxsrf...