Me rinsing the yogurt container before putting it in the recycling bin vs reading that a Belgian airline had 3000 empty flights just to keep airport slots
Every time I hear someone complain about a single tiny piece of plastic on the ground or someone uses slightly more than needed cling wrap, all I can think of is the couple of warehouses I used to work in a couple jobs ago.
Everything comes on pallets wrapped in about a dozen layers of cling wrap. 8-10ft tall pallets.
Every box gets opened, the items pulled out of a large plastic bag, each item wrapped in its own plastic bag.
Those items get put in other boxes, stacked on a different pallet, and wrapped in another dozen layers of plastic wrap.
The pallets get moved to a temporary spot for a few hours, then someone comes up and curs all the wrap off. Moves the boxes onto 4 other pallets, and each of those goes to a separate forklift driver who puts them on shelves.
When the item leaves, it’s placed in plastic bags, then a box, then goes on a pallet that gers wrapped in a dozen layers of plastic wrap. Onto the truck for shipping elsewhere.
They have a truck that comes twice a day to replace a shipping container filled with plastic.
So much plastic, every day, all day, they only close for Christmas and 4th of July.
Am I still going to use anything but plastic wherever possible? Sure. Am I still going to pick up that piece of plastic and put it in the recycling bin? Absolutely.
Companies suck and will blame you for their shitty treatment just like every abuser does.
Yes, you can recycle plastic. Yes, its complex due to different types and grades of it. The only responsibility of the consumer is to put it into the right bin.
Yes, the corporations creating plastic products should do more. It doesn’t have to be financially feasible to recycle it, It needs to be ecologically feasible and companies producing plastic products should pay the recycling toll.
We can also just burn it for energy like we do with tires… I recycle it like a good little cog in the machine because even if 5% of it gets back into product and not into my penis, is a win.
We need to make it financially feasible to properly recycle plastics by making it so damn expensive for companies to be wasteful with plastics. Among many other things, of course.
I doubt it will happen in our lifetimes, though.
The true long term solution is eliminating plastic. Back in the iron age there were glass bottles used to distribute milk and they were returned to be used again. Of course this system is more complicated and expensive than trucking in oil and turning it into single use containers so it’ll never happen before the world is burned.
95% of microplastics going to your penis is considered a win?
It adds to the firmness.
If your erection lasts longer than 400 years please seek medical attention
I take 95 over 100 but if you want a plastic dick, have at it haha
I need to clean it to a concerning degree as well or risk being fined.
Also, where do those burned plastic fumes go after being burned also matter and I’m not confident they’re not just being sent straight back to my lungs.
I don’t have a problem with cleaning tbh. It’s not required here but I just feel icky if I put a yogurt stained container into the bin.
With burning, it must be done at very high temperatures to ensure the resulting gasses get burned as well. Here I generally ment collect plastic and send it to a facility which has furnaces which can accommodate this kind of waste (like rubber tires).
Plastic can be recycled. Adding high quality synthetic oil into poor quality plastic can completely restore it’s potential for use. HOWEVER! The main and mind consuming problem with plastic: plants can’t grow in microplatics. Test it out, grind up plastic, put it in a bowl, and plant a seed in it, use growth hormones, use plant food, use whatever you like. The plant will sprout and die shortly after. It will never flower. Meaning once the Earths soil becomes statistically enough microplastic particles, crops won’t grow, any new plants in nature will never reach maturity. Complete decaying death of the natural world because a purified compound that is incompatible with life, has been ground up and spread all over the globe. That’s the fear of microplastics. That and the long term impact on people that get exposed to high enough concentrations that plants can’t grow… Likely dehydrate to death as the body won’t be able to absorb micro plastic laden water. You can also test that at home, but I do not recommend drinking micro plastic heavy water to see what it might be like for your grand kids.
what’s the fix?
For the harm that’s already been done? Time.
For the future? Regulation.
Regulation
that’s extremely vague, what does the regulation do? Does it limit types of plastic? Uses of plastic? Production quantities? Waste allocations?
I’m not a plastic or environmental specialist, so I can’t say. Surely you don’t expect me to know all the answers, do you? Come on, now.
I’d think regulation would encompass all the things you mentioned, possibly more like subsidizing the use of non-plastics in industrial applications, for example.
My point is that regulations are likely insufficient.
What we really need is a reduction in consumption. We need to stop living life as “dedicated waste manufacturers”.
Here’s a useful article to help get over the limits of regulations: https://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
Regulations are not inefficient. Bad regulations are inefficient
One of the many other problems with recycling besides this tidbit, is the fact that most people don’t even follow the first two instructions before recycling. Nobody reuses anything and nobody has reduced their consumption.
There’s a bulk food store near me and it allows BYO containers (or you can use one of their compostable bags). It’s great! A little bit more work (you need to tare your/container write down the empty weight), but you get your goods in the container of your choice.
That would be a zero waste store, there are a few of those around. To find one, this website has an overly generous list of such stores in the United States. Many of the stores listed are not actually zero waste stores though (i.e. Natural Pantry). So for those who want to use that list to find a zero-waste store, it is important to note the stores near them and go to them one by one (or look them up) to see if they are zero-waste and what they offer. If a suitable store is found, then some groceries can be bought without disposable packaging.
This does come at a price, though. The store I use has prices that are, on average, about 3 times higher per unit weight than the bargain brand at a regular store. I can afford that, and for some consumers an organic/local/premium/etc. quality is worth it, but many people cannot afford it. The current system of excessive single-use packaging is unfortunately very labor-efficient (which is why it was adopted in the first place), and that shows in the prices.
I’m always reminded of the iCarly episode about recycling.
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