4 ms·

The industry and their advocacy groups reduced their costs by switching to packaging, proceeded to lie to consumers and government that all this new packaging w

by josho 6y ago

The industry and their advocacy groups reduced their costs by switching to packaging, proceeded to lie to consumers and government that all this new packaging was going to be easily recycled and not to worry. I don't see where consumers are on the hook? We were told that plastic was better (e.g. the switch from paper bags to plastic). As a comparison to electronics industry in many jurisdictions there are recycling fees paid at the time of purchase. Those fees are paid to recyclers to tear down equipment into raw materials to be re-used. The electronics industry didn't mislead anyway suggesting recycling could pay for itself nor add recycling symbols to suggest you could drop a TV in your blue recycle bin.

gruez 6y ago
>I don't see where consumers are on the hook? We were told that plastic was better (e.g. the switch from paper bags to plastic). No, that's just fraud. Externality has a very specific meaning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality. In this case a third party isn't bearing the cost. It's still the consumer (via taxes or garbage disposal fees). >As a comparison to electronics industry in many jurisdictions there are recycling fees paid at the time of purchase. That's simply a different way of raising funds for waste disposal. I suspect it's not used for other forms of packaging because they don't require special handling, and therefore the cost is so marginal that it's not worth collecting.
- jolux 6y ago
  The fraud was in denying the externality, which is on the environment in the form of massive amounts of material that can’t be recycled and which do not biodegrade.
  - gruez 6y ago
    >which is on the environment in the form of massive amounts of material that can’t be recycled Why is that bad? It's not like we're running out of landfill space (at least in the US), and it's not like plastic in a landfill leeches chemicals into the drinking water or something. > and which do not biodegrade I don't think anyone was fooled into thinking that plastics were biodegradable.
    - jolux 6y ago
      >Why is that bad? It's not like we're running out of landfill space (at least in the US), and it's not like plastic in a landfill leeches chemicals into the drinking water or something. Because it's not all going into landfills, it's ending up as litter and giant floating pallets of plastic in the middle of the ocean. >I don't think anyone was fooled into thinking that plastics were biodegradable. No, but metal, glass, and paper are all either recyclable or biodegradable or both.

by josho 6y ago

gruez 6y ago

>I don't see where consumers are on the hook? We were told that plastic was better (e.g. the switch from paper bags to plastic). No, that's just fraud. Externality has a very specific meaning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality. In this case a third party isn't bearing the cost. It's still the consumer (via taxes or garbage disposal fees). >As a comparison to electronics industry in many jurisdictions there are recycling fees paid at the time of purchase. That's simply a different way of raising funds for waste disposal. I suspect it's not used for other forms of packaging because they don't require special handling, and therefore the cost is so marginal that it's not worth collecting.

jolux 6y ago
The fraud was in denying the externality, which is on the environment in the form of massive amounts of material that can’t be recycled and which do not biodegrade.
- gruez 6y ago
  >which is on the environment in the form of massive amounts of material that can’t be recycled Why is that bad? It's not like we're running out of landfill space (at least in the US), and it's not like plastic in a landfill leeches chemicals into the drinking water or something. > and which do not biodegrade I don't think anyone was fooled into thinking that plastics were biodegradable.
  - jolux 6y ago
    >Why is that bad? It's not like we're running out of landfill space (at least in the US), and it's not like plastic in a landfill leeches chemicals into the drinking water or something. Because it's not all going into landfills, it's ending up as litter and giant floating pallets of plastic in the middle of the ocean. >I don't think anyone was fooled into thinking that plastics were biodegradable. No, but metal, glass, and paper are all either recyclable or biodegradable or both.