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The Ocean Cleanup Project is doing good work and could probably use some scaling up https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/in-search-of-the-rivers-that-carry-plas

by pyaamb 5y ago

The Ocean Cleanup Project is doing good work and could probably use some scaling up https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/in-search-of-the-rivers-that-carry-plastic-into-the-ocean/ https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/in-search-of-the-rivers-...

shadilay 5y ago
It is infinitely more efficient to just not dump plastic in the ocean in the first place than it is pick it out of the ocean.
- pyaamb 5y ago
  Indeed
- danieldbird 5y ago
  ..or sifting it from the river before it enters the ocean. Is it the incentive for recycling is big enough for plastic to be recycled immediately after use, or no recycling centres. I remember recycling bottles and cans as a child for 5c each. This sounds like something that could be solved by somebody with enough capital investing in a recycling system / plants there. Bill / Elon / Jeff? Seems an extremely important issue we get solved, here on earth...
  - shadilay 5y ago
    There is no such thing as plastic recycling as there is no use for second hand plastics. The best thing you can do is put it in a landfill. The Romans had landfills, there's no excuse for countries in the modern day that just toss trash in the river.
- merpnderp 5y ago
  Which is why all these cleanup projects and bag bans are just silly unserious people. Anyone who actually cared should be pushing for improved waste management in the source countries. If it’s aid grants for better trash service or threats of tariffs for not improving things or whatever, but banning straws or picking up plastic in the ocean strikes as nothing but narcissistic public preening.
  - Renaud 5y ago
    That's a pretty disparaging and uncompromising view. Banning single-plastic use in removes millions of tons of plastic from the ending up in the sea. That is a net benefit for very little effort and inconvenience. It's not going to solve all problems and it's a low hanging fruit, but it's a start toward removing our dependence on single-use plastics. Whatever level of plastic management we reach, there are already millions of tons of plastic in the sea to clean up. So efforts on that front are not in vain either. Again, they aren't going to fix the whole issue but they attempt to fix one part of it. We don't have to tackle issues one at a time. People make efforts where they can. Even if it's only solving a few percent of the global issue. It's not posturing if it helps. No-one said each of these is the end-all of all solutions to the plastic waste problem. These efforts don't distract from tackling the problem of waste disposal. Helping building waste infrastructures in countries like the Phillipines is first and foremost a political and policy problem, there needs to be a political will and a legislation framework to make it happen, then it's a money problem.
  - titzer 5y ago
    > just silly unserious people. The peanut gallery is in full force today. It's really not necessary to insult people who are trying to make a difference. You could spend your time turning up your nose at the huge corporations producing the plastic products that they are jamming in to these markets, or you could turn up your nose at corrupt third world countries for having broken waste management strategies, or you could turn up your nose at people who throw their garbage in rivers...and you decide that the people you want to deride are...the people picking up garbage and pointing out the problem? In truth, I've never met a narcissist picking up garbage. Never.
    - merpnderp 5y ago
      Really I should just spend my money elsewhere than the Philippine food packaging companies? Or maybe I should vote in Malaysia to improve waste management? Petition my local Indian council to install waste collectors in my local river? > In truth, I've never met a narcissist picking up garbage. I didn't call them narcissist. I called the people who got on Twitter to let the world they know they support plastic straw bans because they care about the ocean, narcissists. And why do people feel the need to make up straw men to respond to? You can't find enough holes in what I said, so you make up something I didn't say? Why?

by pyaamb 5y ago

shadilay 5y ago

It is infinitely more efficient to just not dump plastic in the ocean in the first place than it is pick it out of the ocean.

pyaamb 5y ago
Indeed
danieldbird 5y ago
..or sifting it from the river before it enters the ocean. Is it the incentive for recycling is big enough for plastic to be recycled immediately after use, or no recycling centres. I remember recycling bottles and cans as a child for 5c each. This sounds like something that could be solved by somebody with enough capital investing in a recycling system / plants there. Bill / Elon / Jeff? Seems an extremely important issue we get solved, here on earth...
- shadilay 5y ago
  There is no such thing as plastic recycling as there is no use for second hand plastics. The best thing you can do is put it in a landfill. The Romans had landfills, there's no excuse for countries in the modern day that just toss trash in the river.
merpnderp 5y ago
Which is why all these cleanup projects and bag bans are just silly unserious people. Anyone who actually cared should be pushing for improved waste management in the source countries. If it’s aid grants for better trash service or threats of tariffs for not improving things or whatever, but banning straws or picking up plastic in the ocean strikes as nothing but narcissistic public preening.
- Renaud 5y ago
  That's a pretty disparaging and uncompromising view. Banning single-plastic use in removes millions of tons of plastic from the ending up in the sea. That is a net benefit for very little effort and inconvenience. It's not going to solve all problems and it's a low hanging fruit, but it's a start toward removing our dependence on single-use plastics. Whatever level of plastic management we reach, there are already millions of tons of plastic in the sea to clean up. So efforts on that front are not in vain either. Again, they aren't going to fix the whole issue but they attempt to fix one part of it. We don't have to tackle issues one at a time. People make efforts where they can. Even if it's only solving a few percent of the global issue. It's not posturing if it helps. No-one said each of these is the end-all of all solutions to the plastic waste problem. These efforts don't distract from tackling the problem of waste disposal. Helping building waste infrastructures in countries like the Phillipines is first and foremost a political and policy problem, there needs to be a political will and a legislation framework to make it happen, then it's a money problem.
- titzer 5y ago
  > just silly unserious people. The peanut gallery is in full force today. It's really not necessary to insult people who are trying to make a difference. You could spend your time turning up your nose at the huge corporations producing the plastic products that they are jamming in to these markets, or you could turn up your nose at corrupt third world countries for having broken waste management strategies, or you could turn up your nose at people who throw their garbage in rivers...and you decide that the people you want to deride are...the people picking up garbage and pointing out the problem? In truth, I've never met a narcissist picking up garbage. Never.
  - merpnderp 5y ago
    Really I should just spend my money elsewhere than the Philippine food packaging companies? Or maybe I should vote in Malaysia to improve waste management? Petition my local Indian council to install waste collectors in my local river? > In truth, I've never met a narcissist picking up garbage. I didn't call them narcissist. I called the people who got on Twitter to let the world they know they support plastic straw bans because they care about the ocean, narcissists. And why do people feel the need to make up straw men to respond to? You can't find enough holes in what I said, so you make up something I didn't say? Why?