61–70 of 136 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So the headline is just absolute bollocks and means nothing when you start to interrogate it? Oh ok.
Do you expect a headline to tell you the whole story?
This movement is really dumb. Plastic pollution in the ocean is a problem, but it’s not the western countries causing it. There are 10 rivers that cause 90% of plastic pollution, and they are in Africa and Asia. Plastic in a landfill harms nobody. The worst part is that people somehow have this linked in thier mind with climate change, as in fixing plastic pollution is going to help with that. Well if anything, it’s…
We cannot fix everything everywhere, but we can move the needle. Maybe a youth living near one of those 10 rivers, reading about Canada doing it, will become a member of parliament or a minister and will do something about it. Or not. Maybe here in Canada out of necessity we come up with smart solutions to replaces single use plastics that can be copied all over the world. Or not.
But what we can do, we shall, and as a Canadian, I am fully behind this decision.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not having alternatives to replace them with?
Paper/jute bags and multi-use plastics have been in circulation for quite some time now.
not sure about "jute bags" (whatever that is), but paper bags have worse climate impact than plastic bags.
>and multi-use plastics have been in circulation for quite some time now.
Those don't really work if they're used for packaging, because the rely on the end-user to reuse it. If they don't they probably have worse environmental impact.
Interesting side-note: here in Vancouver BC, we were full steam ahead on eliminating plastics (e.g. styrofoam take-out containers, plastic drinking straws, shopping bags, etc.) but that was seemingly all instantly reversed once social distancing started. I can understand the reversal of charging for shopping bags to encourage bringing reusable bags: reusable bags are potentially a disease vector. But what's with the…
I don't understand the rationale of not letting me bag my own groceries in my own bag. I'm not asking them to touch it, anymore than I ask them to touch my fabric jacket. Nor am I aware of any evidence of covid transmission through proximity to textile bags. The ban seems utterly senseless. I bought my bag years ago at Trader Joes but they no longer let me use it, so I no longer shop at Trader Joes. There are other grocery stores nearby that are being less unreasonable.
A significant inquiry I have to this in general is what should we do for people for which single-use plastics are exceptionally necessary for their lives? For example, people with disabilities who cannot manage paper straws (due to their collapsing before a drink can be consumed) or metal straws (due to mental strain in keeping track of their cleaning)?
Have you ever used a paper straw? It takes ages for it to dissolve so for most people, event the disabled ones, it is not a problem.
This movement is really dumb. Plastic pollution in the ocean is a problem, but it’s not the western countries causing it. There are 10 rivers that cause 90% of plastic pollution, and they are in Africa and Asia. Plastic in a landfill harms nobody. The worst part is that people somehow have this linked in thier mind with climate change, as in fixing plastic pollution is going to help with that. Well if anything, it’s…
This movement is really dumb. Plastic pollution in the ocean is a problem, but it’s not the western countries causing it. There are 10 rivers that cause 90% of plastic pollution, and they are in Africa and Asia. Plastic in a landfill harms nobody. The worst part is that people somehow have this linked in thier mind with climate change, as in fixing plastic pollution is going to help with that. Well if anything, it’s…
Admittedly as a layperson I am guilty of wondering whether it is just one of those crazy ideas the marijuana enthusiasts are pushing, or whether it has any legitimate potential.
Has this material been given any serious consideration?
This movement is really dumb. Plastic pollution in the ocean is a problem, but it’s not the western countries causing it. There are 10 rivers that cause 90% of plastic pollution, and they are in Africa and Asia. Plastic in a landfill harms nobody. The worst part is that people somehow have this linked in thier mind with climate change, as in fixing plastic pollution is going to help with that. Well if anything, it’s…
It sometimes feels as though climate change has sucked all the air out of other aspects of environmentalism. If you want to get people to pay attention to something, you first reframe it in terms of climate change. Want to protest the deforestation of the Amazon? Don't bother mentioning habitat loss and extinctions, people no longer care about that; focus on how it will impact CO2 levels. If the matter cannot rationally be framed in that way, do it anyway. Littering causes climate change because if we admit it probably doesn't, people won't care about it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20190102054648/https://slatestar...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what I see in California with the bag ban. People use multi use bags once, resulting in a net increase in plastic use. This is a hard problem. A ban will not fix it and may have perverse effects like increasing usage and pollution. What is so damn bad about paper? Paper is mostly renewable (or can be) and is very biodegradable. Why not just make better paper bags
they're not waterproof (or at least, lose structural integrity when wet), and they have worse climate impact than plastic bags.