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This is a very good time for this link: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/grocery-bag-environmental-impact https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/grocery-bag-envi

This is a very good time for this link: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/grocery-bag-environmental-impact https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/grocery-bag-environmental... (look at the last graph, with averages). This is the kind of misguided environmentalism that does a lot more harm than good. It's not fashionable to say so, but plastic is a trivial issue on pretty much every possible count - when you do the math. Trying to "fix" it on the other hand often makes our lives miserable (paper straws) or just plain backfires massively. Growing cranberries takes energy, which for the foreseeable future means oil. Want to bet how much oil is being burned to grow a ton of cranberry film, and compare it with just turning that oil directly intro plastic?

Mistletoe 4y ago
There is no bar for the massive amount of plastic trash we are putting in the ocean there though. The cranberry film would be about microplastics and damage to wildlife, not greenhouse gas emissions.
- dr_dshiv 4y ago
  I thought the vast majority of plastic in the ocean was from fishing and developing countries?
  - Mistletoe 4y ago
    I mean my understanding is a lot of it was our plastic recycling going there and being dumped in the ocean… https://www.treehugger.com/europe-s-plastic-recycling-is-getting-dumped-in-the-ocean-5070465 https://www.treehugger.com/europe-s-plastic-recycling-is-get...
    - dr_dshiv 4y ago
      That’s true, but it might not be as much as imagined: “A reasonable estimate [for the amount of plastic produced by rich countries that end up in the ocean] might be around 5% of ocean plastics. In reality, it might be a bit lower because a tonne of waste that is bought and traded is more likely to be managed well than the average tonne of waste in a country.” https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-waste-trade https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-waste-trade
- radu_floricica 4y ago
  Who's "we"? I'm pretty sure developing countries don't throw plastic in the ocean, if only because there is already a non-green much more profitable alternative: burn it. In Europe there is a well set up "recycling" industry that takes plastic and burns it at high temperatures for applications like cement making. Not great, not terrible, and definitely not throwing away money in the sea.
  - Mistletoe 4y ago
    The post I posted below from TreeHugger is specifically about Europe.

Mistletoe 4y ago

There is no bar for the massive amount of plastic trash we are putting in the ocean there though. The cranberry film would be about microplastics and damage to wildlife, not greenhouse gas emissions.

dr_dshiv 4y ago
I thought the vast majority of plastic in the ocean was from fishing and developing countries?
- Mistletoe 4y ago
  I mean my understanding is a lot of it was our plastic recycling going there and being dumped in the ocean… https://www.treehugger.com/europe-s-plastic-recycling-is-getting-dumped-in-the-ocean-5070465 https://www.treehugger.com/europe-s-plastic-recycling-is-get...
  - dr_dshiv 4y ago
    That’s true, but it might not be as much as imagined: “A reasonable estimate [for the amount of plastic produced by rich countries that end up in the ocean] might be around 5% of ocean plastics. In reality, it might be a bit lower because a tonne of waste that is bought and traded is more likely to be managed well than the average tonne of waste in a country.” https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-waste-trade https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-waste-trade
radu_floricica 4y ago
Who's "we"? I'm pretty sure developing countries don't throw plastic in the ocean, if only because there is already a non-green much more profitable alternative: burn it. In Europe there is a well set up "recycling" industry that takes plastic and burns it at high temperatures for applications like cement making. Not great, not terrible, and definitely not throwing away money in the sea.
- Mistletoe 4y ago
  The post I posted below from TreeHugger is specifically about Europe.