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Is it a bit much, though? Unlike me, my children will never experience their home planet without microplastics everywhere, from the highest peak down to the de
by cseleborg 4y ago
Is it a bit much, though?
Unlike me, my children will never experience their home planet without microplastics everywhere, from the highest peak down to the deepest trench in the ocean. They will have to pay a hefty price for what we and those before us have done to the environment. I think that's a bit much.
Where's the cost-benefit for them of wrapped cucumbers?
Like I said, there are applications where plastic is justified, medical devices for example. Cucumbers, bread, smartphones, cutlery, plants, cereal, rice, potatoes, toys: I think there are plastic-free solutions that we should now absolutely and urgently go for.
- dr_dshiv 4y agoHere is a rundown of the cost-benefit. I think it helps explain why plastic is used! https://www.forkranger.com/plastic-wrapping-of-cucumbers-clever-or-careless/ https://www.forkranger.com/plastic-wrapping-of-cucumbers-cle...
- cseleborg 4y agoThanks for posting this. The issue I have here is that I would need to spend hours researching whether wrapping a single kind of produce is OK or not. It's a science! Another example: is it better to buy the non-organic, locally produced apple or the organic apple that comes from Argentina? (I'm in Europe). In the store, I need simple heuristics to make my decisions. My heuristics: - Is there plastic? -> Pass - Is it produce from far away? -> Pass, mostly - Is it non-organic? -> Pass, if there's an organic alternative. And yeah, sometimes it's a decision between the produce that's organic but wrapped in plastic and that which is conventional but without wrapping and grown locally. That's a head-scratcher every time.
- lambdadmitry 4y agoIf you live in a developed country, your contribution to the microplastic problem is minuscule regardless of the amount of plastic packaging you use. Landfilled, or better yet burned in industrial setting plastics don't get into the oceans, they are either fixed there for millennia, or don't exist anymore. Plastics are a non-issue for countries with functioning waste management, which is coincidentally the countries that can afford caring about it the most, so in a sense there is a self-contradiction in this debate. International treaties forcing developing countries to get their waste management together combined with targeted investment there would help way more.
- cseleborg 4y agoGermany exports most of its plastic waste. China stopped importing it a few years ago, so now it gets bought up by African countries. I think your assumptions about a functioning waste system do not apply to most developed countries I know, unfortunately.
- lambdadmitry 4y agoAccording to [1] and [2], most German plastic waste goes to Netherlands. Moreover, apparently a third of it gets incinerated or recycled domestically. So yes, officials turning a blind eye to developing countries pseudo-recycling plastic waste is a problem, but 1) it's not as clear cut as you present it 2) surely building a few incinerators is easier than reinventing all logistical chains to not use plastics? [1]: https://www.destatis.de/EN/Press/2022/06/PE22_N035_51.html https://www.destatis.de/EN/Press/2022/06/PE22_N035_51.html [2]: https://waste-management-world.com/artikel/germany-s-problems-with-plastic-waste/ https://waste-management-world.com/artikel/germany-s-problem...