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There are also bad cultures that find it acceptable to just throw any trash into a river.

wombatmobile 5y ago
> There are also bad cultures that find it acceptable to just throw any trash into a river. For thousands of years, Philippines culture was responsible for zero plastic waste being dumped into river and ocean systems. Food was grown organically, packaged and transported sustainably, and waste was managed to preserve ocean and river ecosystems. What changed? > The United States exercised formal colonial rule over the Philippines, its largest overseas colony, between 1899 and 1946. American economic and strategic interests in Asia and the Pacific were increasing in the late 1890s in the wake of an industrial depression and in the face of global, interimperial competition. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/united-states-colonial-rule-philippines https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-...
- goatlover 5y ago
  What does something that ended 75 years ago have to do with the culture today of dumping trash in rivers? I knew someone was going to find a way to blame the US.
  - wombatmobile 5y ago
    > I knew someone was going to find a way to blame the US. US corporations deserve great credit for inventing plastics which have enabled foods and beverages to be transported conveniently all over the world. Fortunately for US corporations, this credit has already been realised through the enormous revenues that have accrued to the patent holders and trading companies which have been richly rewarded for the invention and production of plastics.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > For thousands of years, Philippines culture was responsible for zero plastic waste being dumped into river and ocean systems. [...] > What changed? The development of mass produced plastics in the 1940s-1950s; no one was throwing any significant quantity of plastic waste anywhere before then, so “thousands of years” of history are irrelevant. > The United States exercised formal colonial rule over the Philippines, its largest overseas colony, between 1899 and 1946. So...that ended just as mass produced plastics were becoming available anywhere, and wouldn't be directly relevant. If you want to argue that it produced cultural changes that directly affected how they local people reacted to mass plastic availability, you should make a specific argument, with evidence, about the changes it supposedly induced.
  - wombatmobile 5y ago
    > If you want to argue that it produced cultural changes that directly affected how they local people reacted to mass plastic availability You're making that argument yourself in your own words. > you should make a specific argument, with evidence, about the changes it supposedly induced. I wouldn't argue that way. I would instead note two salient points. 1. Traditional Philippine food waste management involved disposing of food waste and packaging in rivers. That was environmentally sustainable when all food packaging was biodegradable e.g. banana leaves and coconut shells. 2. Whilst foreign companies introduced plastic packaging to the Philippines, nobody introduced a way to process plastic waste effectively, which is why we have this problem.
jerrysievert 5y ago
for several decades, the United States had a culture of "just throw it on the ground". it took concerted efforts to curb what we were doing to what we have now. it was a whole cultural shift. we're not quite there, but we've managed to make a huge change. so, "bad cultures" are just misguided, and can change.

> There are also bad cultures that find it acceptable to just throw any trash into a river. For thousands of years, Philippines culture was responsible for zero plastic waste being dumped into river and ocean systems. Food was grown organically, packaged and transported sustainably, and waste was managed to preserve ocean and river ecosystems. What changed? > The United States exercised formal colonial rule over the Philippines, its largest overseas colony, between 1899 and 1946. American economic and strategic interests in Asia and the Pacific were increasing in the late 1890s in the wake of an industrial depression and in the face of global, interimperial competition. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/united-states-colonial-rule-philippines https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-...

goatlover 5y ago
What does something that ended 75 years ago have to do with the culture today of dumping trash in rivers? I knew someone was going to find a way to blame the US.
- wombatmobile 5y ago
  > I knew someone was going to find a way to blame the US. US corporations deserve great credit for inventing plastics which have enabled foods and beverages to be transported conveniently all over the world. Fortunately for US corporations, this credit has already been realised through the enormous revenues that have accrued to the patent holders and trading companies which have been richly rewarded for the invention and production of plastics.
dragonwriter 5y ago
> For thousands of years, Philippines culture was responsible for zero plastic waste being dumped into river and ocean systems. [...] > What changed? The development of mass produced plastics in the 1940s-1950s; no one was throwing any significant quantity of plastic waste anywhere before then, so “thousands of years” of history are irrelevant. > The United States exercised formal colonial rule over the Philippines, its largest overseas colony, between 1899 and 1946. So...that ended just as mass produced plastics were becoming available anywhere, and wouldn't be directly relevant. If you want to argue that it produced cultural changes that directly affected how they local people reacted to mass plastic availability, you should make a specific argument, with evidence, about the changes it supposedly induced.
- wombatmobile 5y ago
  > If you want to argue that it produced cultural changes that directly affected how they local people reacted to mass plastic availability You're making that argument yourself in your own words. > you should make a specific argument, with evidence, about the changes it supposedly induced. I wouldn't argue that way. I would instead note two salient points. 1. Traditional Philippine food waste management involved disposing of food waste and packaging in rivers. That was environmentally sustainable when all food packaging was biodegradable e.g. banana leaves and coconut shells. 2. Whilst foreign companies introduced plastic packaging to the Philippines, nobody introduced a way to process plastic waste effectively, which is why we have this problem.

jerrysievert 5y ago

for several decades, the United States had a culture of "just throw it on the ground". it took concerted efforts to curb what we were doing to what we have now. it was a whole cultural shift. we're not quite there, but we've managed to make a huge change. so, "bad cultures" are just misguided, and can change.