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Thank you for the useful tips, I'll certainly try the last one and I hadn't thought about looking for bar shampoo. However my main issue is that there are so m

Thank you for the useful tips, I'll certainly try the last one and I hadn't thought about looking for bar shampoo. However my main issue is that there are so many hoops to jump through, and most consumers won't even get to the point of considering things like this unless these are presented as equally valid alternatives to the plastic packaged goods on their local convenience store.

mumblemumble 7y ago
Agreed. But I don't think we'll get there without some people being willing to do the extra work to get the trail blazed. My city cut down on plastic bag usage considerably by introducing a $0.07 excise tax on every disposable grocery bag, but I don't think that would have been politically tenable if there weren't already a lot of people using reusable bags. Plastic packaged goods, I don't know. . . I almost wish that some organization would launch a big campaign against Trader Joe's to get them to reduce their packaging use. It's going to be really hard to convince a bodega to stop selling packaged goods, for all sorts of reasons. But Trader Joes has enough control over their supply chain to do it. Their clientele is bobo enough to maybe be a bit easier to get on a bandwagon. They individually shrink wrap the broccoli, so they're a pretty easy target. And they're popular enough that a successful campaign could have a big cultural impact.
- inertiatic 7y ago
  Over here there was an EU mandated (I believe) tax imposed on plastic bags, initially just 4 cents and now up to 7, and it dramatically reduced plastic bag usage. So economic incentives do work, policy does work. As far as hoping that chain stores are pressured into doing the right thing goes, I don't know if we can afford to wait for this to happen organically.
  - Mirioron 7y ago
    I wonder if the system used for plastic bottles could also work for other types of packaging. Add a cost to the packaging that the consumer can get back when they bring the packaging to some recycling or similar place.
    - mumblemumble 7y ago
      Considering that, even if you ignore that 90% of what goes to the recycling center doesn't actually get recycled, plastic recycling's value is still fairly equivocal, I think it'd be better to just make it a straight up excise tax. Save the deposit method for the things where returning them leads to a clear win: aluminum cans and reusable bottles. That way you're encouraging reduce and reuse first. "Recycle" was never supposed to be the first resort in waste reduction, and, at this point, it's arguably not much of a waste reduction technique at all, and instead the centerpiese of an elaborate ecological shell game.

mumblemumble 7y ago

Agreed. But I don't think we'll get there without some people being willing to do the extra work to get the trail blazed. My city cut down on plastic bag usage considerably by introducing a $0.07 excise tax on every disposable grocery bag, but I don't think that would have been politically tenable if there weren't already a lot of people using reusable bags. Plastic packaged goods, I don't know. . . I almost wish that some organization would launch a big campaign against Trader Joe's to get them to reduce their packaging use. It's going to be really hard to convince a bodega to stop selling packaged goods, for all sorts of reasons. But Trader Joes has enough control over their supply chain to do it. Their clientele is bobo enough to maybe be a bit easier to get on a bandwagon. They individually shrink wrap the broccoli, so they're a pretty easy target. And they're popular enough that a successful campaign could have a big cultural impact.

inertiatic 7y ago
Over here there was an EU mandated (I believe) tax imposed on plastic bags, initially just 4 cents and now up to 7, and it dramatically reduced plastic bag usage. So economic incentives do work, policy does work. As far as hoping that chain stores are pressured into doing the right thing goes, I don't know if we can afford to wait for this to happen organically.
- Mirioron 7y ago
  I wonder if the system used for plastic bottles could also work for other types of packaging. Add a cost to the packaging that the consumer can get back when they bring the packaging to some recycling or similar place.
  - mumblemumble 7y ago
    Considering that, even if you ignore that 90% of what goes to the recycling center doesn't actually get recycled, plastic recycling's value is still fairly equivocal, I think it'd be better to just make it a straight up excise tax. Save the deposit method for the things where returning them leads to a clear win: aluminum cans and reusable bottles. That way you're encouraging reduce and reuse first. "Recycle" was never supposed to be the first resort in waste reduction, and, at this point, it's arguably not much of a waste reduction technique at all, and instead the centerpiese of an elaborate ecological shell game.