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Reduce, reuse, recycle - meaning recycling is the last option. It's better to not consume plastic in the first place, but if you must, find additional uses for
by nend 6y ago
Reduce, reuse, recycle - meaning recycling is the last option.
It's better to not consume plastic in the first place, but if you must, find additional uses for it.
It takes more of a lifestyle change though than to simply put your cans in a different barrel. Which is probably why few people are willing to try it.
- coliveira 6y agoThis is not an individual choice. I can try to recycle plastic, but if there is no government programs to handle this issue, it will not work.
- chockablock 6y agoYou can choose to reduce or reuse, though.
- andrekandre 6y agoimagine you are a single, office worker, with long hours (no time to prepare your own lunches) and the only place you can get any food is the convenience store around the corner, you can get your lunch in a plastic container (bento box, sandwich container etc) and your drink from a pet bottle... where is the choice to reduce there? more than anything, the problem is the system and limited capabilities we have to reduce the usage of most plastic items
- kennywinker 6y ago> Which is probably why few people are willing to try it. This is placing a lot of the blame on individual people. I would very much like to use less plastic, and I'm willing to work for it... but my options are very limited. Nearly every product I buy is encased in multiple layers of plastic. I favor second hand stuff, and reduce my overall consumption by avoiding unnecessary purchases. Because I live in a major west-coast city, I can go out of my way to shop at a zero-waste grocery store - but they don't carry many things that I need for daily life. Ultimately, consumer choice only works if there are options available. I can't vote with my dollars for things that are not on the ballot.
- nend 6y agoI agree, asking 7 billion people to individually decide to change their habits is not an effective way to solve the problem. But regardless it is something you can currently do to help, even if in the end more will be needed.
- chrischen 6y agoI feel Americans tend to over-consume and undervalue reuse. I always get made fun of for selling my used things on ebay and also buying used instead of new.
- Ericson2314 6y agoTons of countries want our dollars and flood us with with plastic shit to try to buy those dollars.
- throwawaydad101 6y agoSo don't buy plastic shit?
- lopmotr 6y agoI've heard that sentiment many decades ago too. I suspect it's because things cost the same price everywhere due to international trade but labor for repairing is cheaper in most other countries because they have lower incomes than America. So it may just be a rational economic decision, not the wrong amount of consumption and reuse.
- chrischen 6y agoThere's a lot of friction when it comes to buying used (no warranty, no guarantees). Used doesn't necessarily mean it requires repair, but people often don't bother to re-sell things they aren't using and manufacturers have policies that try to destroy the used market (non transferrable warranties, planned obsolescence, etc).
- bsanr2 6y agoMany plastics can't safely be reused.
- aspaceman 6y agoOr maybe we should stop companies from making genuine truck loads of the garbage? They make it cause it’s cheap, and they don’t give a flying fuck about the world.
- lopmotr 6y agoAnd you buy it because it's cheap.
- pessimizer 6y agoI'm not sure that judging people for not being sufficiently committed is going to save the planet. People are making money from doing this, and are going to protect their income. A pure lifestyle does make us feel better about ourselves, though.