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Don't be so down and depressed. This is not in defense of plastics but flip it around. If we were still making things out of wood and metal the items would be i

Don't be so down and depressed. This is not in defense of plastics but flip it around. If we were still making things out of wood and metal the items would be incredibly expensive due to the labor and resource cost. I equally dislike all the plastic junk that is bought for a couple bucks that are basically use for a moment and become trash. There are also amazingly wonderful things made out of plastic that last a long time when taken care of. Heck I still have toys from 30 years ago that were made out of plastic that are still in pretty good darn shape because they do not hit the sun. My rice cooker has a plastic shell and has lasted a long time. Same with my difference keyboards. Be aware of your consumption but don't let it drag you down.

asdff 3y ago
The thing is, you can still buy a metal can opener and they really don't cost a ton of money either. You can still produce stuff cheaply en masse with metal parts. I have some wood and bamboo kitchen implements, again about as cheap as the plastic equivalents. Its just probably a few cents cheaper to use plastic that is probably good profit when you are moving thousands of units, all else be damned.
- infecto 3y ago
  You cherry picked your examples. All of those things are simple to make regardless of material. Certainly you should vote with you dollar there and buy what makes most sense for your situation. I love using metal and wooden cooking utensils and never plastic myself. If we were to limit ourselves to only wood and metal there would be a lot of products both good and bad, that would most likely never have been invented. Tons of life saving medical devices, items that are hard to shape/mold using metal techniques. Of course everything could be made of wood and I don't know the science but I would think the cost to harvest wood might exceed that of the components of plastic. I might definitely we wrong there too but I just don't think its as easy as saying well we can make can openers and simple wooden implements so therefore its due to corporate greed we use plastic.
  - asdff 3y ago
    Sure, there are purposes where plastic makes the most sense. But I feel that we have walked too far the opposite way when we are detecting these microplastics just about everywhere. That's the nice part of using natural materials like metal and wood, you aren't putting anything into the environment that its not already had strategies to deal with for millions of years.

asdff 3y ago

The thing is, you can still buy a metal can opener and they really don't cost a ton of money either. You can still produce stuff cheaply en masse with metal parts. I have some wood and bamboo kitchen implements, again about as cheap as the plastic equivalents. Its just probably a few cents cheaper to use plastic that is probably good profit when you are moving thousands of units, all else be damned.

infecto 3y ago
You cherry picked your examples. All of those things are simple to make regardless of material. Certainly you should vote with you dollar there and buy what makes most sense for your situation. I love using metal and wooden cooking utensils and never plastic myself. If we were to limit ourselves to only wood and metal there would be a lot of products both good and bad, that would most likely never have been invented. Tons of life saving medical devices, items that are hard to shape/mold using metal techniques. Of course everything could be made of wood and I don't know the science but I would think the cost to harvest wood might exceed that of the components of plastic. I might definitely we wrong there too but I just don't think its as easy as saying well we can make can openers and simple wooden implements so therefore its due to corporate greed we use plastic.
- asdff 3y ago
  Sure, there are purposes where plastic makes the most sense. But I feel that we have walked too far the opposite way when we are detecting these microplastics just about everywhere. That's the nice part of using natural materials like metal and wood, you aren't putting anything into the environment that its not already had strategies to deal with for millions of years.