4 ms·

India should have done this long ago. Recycling items is way harder than it needs to be. First companies need to re-engineer their products to minimize the so

India should have done this long ago. Recycling items is way harder than it needs to be. First companies need to re-engineer their products to minimize the solid waste and maximize recyclability Second, people need to easily understand what can be recycled and what can not so they can make an informed decision Third, communities should not have the option to ship out their waste and have someone else deal with the problem. By shipping out their problems they never have to deal with the consequences. Solid waste is as much pollution as smog has been in large cities. Clean air laws have changed the whole environment in cites like Los Angeles.It's time we start doing the same with solid waste.

greeneggs 8y ago
> Solid waste is as much pollution as smog has been in large cities. Clean air laws have changed the whole environment in cites like Los Angeles.It's time we start doing the same with solid waste. As much as smog "has been"? Los Angeles today is still full of SUVs belching smog. The air quality is still insanely awful. Yet the dialog has moved on (maybe because SUVs are for the wealthy?). Why care about landfills? Air pollution kills people, in addition to hurting them less severely and blocking the views. And on a global scale, climate change is going to hurt everyone on Earth. Landfills in the United States, where they should be properly lined so they don't leak poisons, don't hurt anybody. Plastic in landfills even sequesters carbon.
- wutbrodo 8y ago
  > As much as smog "has been"? Los Angeles today is still full of SUVs belching smog. The air quality is still insanely awful. Yet the dialog has moved on (maybe because SUVs are for the wealthy?). Meh, there's no need to resort to conspiracy theories to explain why the conversation has dropped off the radar. The level of smog in LA is _drastically_ lower than its peak, both quantitatively (as one figure, ozone levels are 40% of what they were in 1970) and in terms of how the man on the ground experiences it. Most people stop caring about a problem when it stops being so dramatically visible.
bamboozled 8y ago
I have to say I agree with the regineering part, i don’t get PET bottles with hard plastic lids and labels. These things can’t be recycled as is it seems as a lot of times I see a seperate bin for the lids. There are a LOT of places where people don’t need to use plastic, it’s just how things are done and it’s convenient. Small example, individually wrapping fruit in plastic at the grocer. Fruit comes with its own packaging!
- emiliobumachar 8y ago
  Careful with unintended consequences. More people will go for the much more impactful cheeseburger or cookie bag if fruit becomes less convenient.
repsilat 8y ago
> India should have done this long ago. This is a government ban, which means they want to stop people who want to import this waste. Are those importers too financially illiterate to realise that they're costing themselves money? That even though their business is dealing with this waste, they need you and the Indian government to tell them that recycling is actually pretty tricky? Maybe they should ban it because it's causing health or environmental problems, but banning activity you think is uneconomical is pointless at best and harmful at worse. > communities should not have the option to ship out their waste and have someone else deal with the problem Nobody is forcing anybody to do anything here. If you pay someone to take your trash, or if someone pays you to take your trash, both of you are better off. Banning the activity makes everyone worse off.
- statictype 8y ago
  I think his point was not that its uneconomical but that it's harmful. By banning it, they are forcing other countries to actually think about their waste and deal with it more responsibly.

greeneggs 8y ago

> Solid waste is as much pollution as smog has been in large cities. Clean air laws have changed the whole environment in cites like Los Angeles.It's time we start doing the same with solid waste. As much as smog "has been"? Los Angeles today is still full of SUVs belching smog. The air quality is still insanely awful. Yet the dialog has moved on (maybe because SUVs are for the wealthy?). Why care about landfills? Air pollution kills people, in addition to hurting them less severely and blocking the views. And on a global scale, climate change is going to hurt everyone on Earth. Landfills in the United States, where they should be properly lined so they don't leak poisons, don't hurt anybody. Plastic in landfills even sequesters carbon.

wutbrodo 8y ago
> As much as smog "has been"? Los Angeles today is still full of SUVs belching smog. The air quality is still insanely awful. Yet the dialog has moved on (maybe because SUVs are for the wealthy?). Meh, there's no need to resort to conspiracy theories to explain why the conversation has dropped off the radar. The level of smog in LA is _drastically_ lower than its peak, both quantitatively (as one figure, ozone levels are 40% of what they were in 1970) and in terms of how the man on the ground experiences it. Most people stop caring about a problem when it stops being so dramatically visible.

bamboozled 8y ago

I have to say I agree with the regineering part, i don’t get PET bottles with hard plastic lids and labels. These things can’t be recycled as is it seems as a lot of times I see a seperate bin for the lids. There are a LOT of places where people don’t need to use plastic, it’s just how things are done and it’s convenient. Small example, individually wrapping fruit in plastic at the grocer. Fruit comes with its own packaging!

emiliobumachar 8y ago
Careful with unintended consequences. More people will go for the much more impactful cheeseburger or cookie bag if fruit becomes less convenient.

repsilat 8y ago

> India should have done this long ago. This is a government ban, which means they want to stop people who want to import this waste. Are those importers too financially illiterate to realise that they're costing themselves money? That even though their business is dealing with this waste, they need you and the Indian government to tell them that recycling is actually pretty tricky? Maybe they should ban it because it's causing health or environmental problems, but banning activity you think is uneconomical is pointless at best and harmful at worse. > communities should not have the option to ship out their waste and have someone else deal with the problem Nobody is forcing anybody to do anything here. If you pay someone to take your trash, or if someone pays you to take your trash, both of you are better off. Banning the activity makes everyone worse off.

statictype 8y ago
I think his point was not that its uneconomical but that it's harmful. By banning it, they are forcing other countries to actually think about their waste and deal with it more responsibly.