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Recycling is an industry psyop to convince the public that plastic can be consumed ethically and sustainably. Unless we ban disposable plastics altogether, the
by mouse_ 3y ago
Recycling is an industry psyop to convince the public that plastic can be consumed ethically and sustainably. Unless we ban disposable plastics altogether, the problem will only get worse. Plastic has only been around for 100 years; imagine just how bad things will be in 500.
- city41 3y agoThey even designed their plastic type symbol to look like the recycle symbol, even though most plastics can't be recycled. > The “chasing arrows” symbol we see on plastic containers and products does not necessarily mean the product is recyclable. https://www.acmeplastics.com/content/your-guide-to-plastic-recycling-symbols/ https://www.acmeplastics.com/content/your-guide-to-plastic-r...
- travisgriggs 3y agoIt's mind boggling to ponder a world without any plastic products though, isn't it? I work in ag irrigation, and the degree to which plastic has taken over irrigation implements in the last 20+ years is mind boggling. I sometimes wonder what it would mean for our company and industry in general if plastic suddenly became toxic.
- MPSimmons 3y agoIf plastic becomes toxic, it won't _become toxic_, it will become recognized as toxic, which would mean that it's toxic right now, and while that's true for some plastics, it doesn't seem to be true for the majority of food-safe plastics in use. I think it's more likely that there's some kind of subtle effect from the introduction of microplastics into the ecosystem that we haven't identified yet, but as of right now, there's no conclusive evidence that I'm aware of that microplastics are toxic, only that sufficient accumulation of them can impair biological function, just the same as any contaminant would.
- epistasis 3y agoAgree 99%, but as plastics break down there's a chance that they do become toxic. For example, a chemical used in tires is extremely toxic to salmon, but only after breaking down a bit: https://www.science.org/content/article/common-tire-chemical-implicated-mysterious-deaths-risk-salmon https://www.science.org/content/article/common-tire-chemical...
- MPSimmons 3y agoOh wow, that's really interesting. I wasn't aware. Thank you!
- epistasis 3y agoWhen we have built entire civilizations that require orders of magnitude more burning of gasoline to get through a day, plastics are the least of our worries, IMHO. If my fellow Americans were forced to lift and pour the 20 gallons of gasoline when they refill their tanks, they might start to realize the true source of the vast majority of their environmental damage. (And as far as waste, tire microplastics are a far bigger concern than any plastic packaging waste.)
- mouse_ 3y agoThen ban oil and cars, too. I'm deadly serious.
- baggy_trough 3y ago"Deadly" is the operative word, as that would cause incalculable suffering and damage.
- epistasis 3y agoCars do cause absolutely untold amounts of death and suffering. Something like 60-80 millions deaths and 2 billion injuries have been caused by cars. It's one of the major causes of early death. Most of our fire departments' time in the US is spent dealing with the carnage and bodily mutilation caused by cars, and only a tiny fraction spent on actual fires.
- baggy_trough 3y agoThat may well be true, and yet, getting rid of oil and cars would be much worse by many orders of magnitude.
- epistasis 3y agoYou think getting rid of oil and gasoline cars would kill 6-8 billion people and injure all the rest?
- smashed 3y agoAfter the stone, bronze and iron age, we are definitely in the plastic age now.
- goatlover 3y agoI imagine in 500 years there will be nanobots and engineered organisms that recycle plastic in the environment.