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China is now mandating reusable bottles and phasing out single-use plastic items.
by Synaesthesia 4y ago
China is now mandating reusable bottles and phasing out single-use plastic items.
- Overtonwindow 4y agoThat’s easier to do in a country with as much government control as China. would that work federally in America?
- Synaesthesia 4y agoIn WW2 the government simply ordered corporations to do things, and ran a command economy, well I guess they suddenly realised they had that power. I'm not saying they should do that, but it would be good if they did something, and I'm pointing out that there are steps we can take.
- kennywinker 4y agoIt would if people wanted it to work.
- fazfq 4y agoAnd if they don't, I'm happy the government doesn't foist that on the people, unlike in other places.
- kennywinker 4y agoSure... forcing the people to do things they don't want to is bad. But one of the reasons I think people don't want to do this kinds of collectivist tasks is because we've been trained into being hyper-individualistic. It's "nobody has my back, why should I have somebody else's back?". If we fostered a more collaborative "we're all in this together" culture, by y'know... actually being in this together, I think there would be a lot of problems we think of as impossibly hard to solve that would be incredibly easy to solve. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" was once an inspiring thing to hear.
- sokoloff 4y agoIf six marijuana plants grown and consumed in someone's backyard are "interstate commerce", I'm quite sure the bottled beverages industry also is. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/545/1/ https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/545/1/
- mensetmanusman 4y agoWho cleans it? Does the cost structure rely on slave labor?
- Symbiote 4y agoCoca Cola (and many other soft drinks) is sold in reusable plastic bottles in Germany. They are slightly thicker than the disposable bottles used elsewhere, especially the rim, presumably so a machine can handle it more easily.
- ArchOversight 4y agoIn The Netherlands at least people return them to the point of sale because you get money back for them, so the incentive is not to throw money away.
- Ekaros 4y agoFinland used to sell drinks in reusable bottles, but then we swapped for "recyclable" ones. Which were thinner, flimsier and generally worse.
- MichaelCollins 4y agoA century ago when glass bottle reuse was still common in the west, glass bottles were cleaned automatically by machines. A bottle cleaning plant should be able to achieve very high throughput with relatively few workers, paying them properly shouldn't be a problem.