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India has gone all in on making roads out of plastic waste. Apparently it's better to use plastic in a road than put it in landfill because........ errrr.....

India has gone all in on making roads out of plastic waste. Apparently it's better to use plastic in a road than put it in landfill because........ errrr..... because... landfill sounds bad? If it turns out that putting all that plastic waste into roads in fact is a way of putting microplastics into the environment then India will be at the forefront.

throw4way23984 3y ago
There's a phrase in India, "Ek dum number one", which roughly translates to "absolutely number one". India ek dum number one. It's an absolutely senseless policy, regardless of country, that's going to exacerbate the problem. And the problem of microplastics is just barely starting to garner mainstream attention and long term implications are not fully understood. Probably not a good idea to spew them all over the place regardless. And there's some group of people who continue to downplay the issue (eg downvoting any comment suggesting microplastics are not fully understood and _may_ cause long lasting damage to the ecosystem and health)
- imp0cat 3y ago
  the problem of microplastics is just barely starting to garner mainstream attention In India? I ask, because in Europe, there definitely is a lot of awareness. Products that advertise no microplastics are common, there are attempts to regulate stuff like brake dust etc....
  - throw4way23984 3y ago
    I'm not in India, so I can't say, but I doubt it's any better than where I am. In non-European western countries, I've seen some news articles now and then mention microplastics, but they're few and very uncommon. Definitely nothing like products that advertise no microplastics. Part of Europe may be ahead of the curve in that regard. For example, PFAS stuff is now entering mainstream attention and government regulations are now being put in place in some countries and regions. It's now common to see products now advertised as PFAS-free. Microplastics is likely decade or more away from getting that kind of attention. Hopefully more research and understanding of the impact is done during that time. But in the meantime countless bits of microplastics are being introduced into the waterways non-stop. Fibers from synthetic clothing, laundry products (PVA, polyester dryer sheets), probably number of other things including tire dust. Unlike the pacific garbage island, this stuff isn't visible, so unlikely to get the type of media attention macro-plastic pollution has gotten over the past decades.
TaylorAlexander 3y ago
I'm currently listening to Vandana Shiva's book Terra Viva, which underscores the Indian government's many, many missteps on environmental policy, so perhaps because I have been literally listening to four hours of this today, I would not be surprised if that turned out to be another big mistake that puts some notion of economic production over the environment.
- Gibbon1 3y ago
  I see pictures of highway construction in developing counties and think gads they're doing stuff we realized was a bad idea 50 years ago. One thing I've really noticed about the US is suburb layouts are designs to shield people from traffic using networks of serpentine streets with courts and dead ends which have the side effect of making them completely unwalkable. Like stores might be 100 yards away if you were a crow. But it's half a mile walking.
  - TaylorAlexander 3y ago
    Yep. And while you and me might be tapped in to urbanist YouTube or blogs, the people in power are literally 80 years old, can’t use email, and still think that cars are better than public transit and walkable neighborhoods. It is a problem of the way we allocate power and how susceptible that is to corruption and control by the wealthy, who would rather have old reliable (to their interests) people in charge than young people who might try to upset the balance of things. The more I notice it the more obvious it becomes. I think a lot about how China is getting better and better at manufacturing and in the USA we’re… well maybe staying the same but really just getting worse. And I think it’s the same issue - old politicians who don’t see what’s going on and aren’t willing to make real change. (And the structures that keep things this way.)

throw4way23984 3y ago

There's a phrase in India, "Ek dum number one", which roughly translates to "absolutely number one". India ek dum number one. It's an absolutely senseless policy, regardless of country, that's going to exacerbate the problem. And the problem of microplastics is just barely starting to garner mainstream attention and long term implications are not fully understood. Probably not a good idea to spew them all over the place regardless. And there's some group of people who continue to downplay the issue (eg downvoting any comment suggesting microplastics are not fully understood and _may_ cause long lasting damage to the ecosystem and health)

imp0cat 3y ago
the problem of microplastics is just barely starting to garner mainstream attention In India? I ask, because in Europe, there definitely is a lot of awareness. Products that advertise no microplastics are common, there are attempts to regulate stuff like brake dust etc....
- throw4way23984 3y ago
  I'm not in India, so I can't say, but I doubt it's any better than where I am. In non-European western countries, I've seen some news articles now and then mention microplastics, but they're few and very uncommon. Definitely nothing like products that advertise no microplastics. Part of Europe may be ahead of the curve in that regard. For example, PFAS stuff is now entering mainstream attention and government regulations are now being put in place in some countries and regions. It's now common to see products now advertised as PFAS-free. Microplastics is likely decade or more away from getting that kind of attention. Hopefully more research and understanding of the impact is done during that time. But in the meantime countless bits of microplastics are being introduced into the waterways non-stop. Fibers from synthetic clothing, laundry products (PVA, polyester dryer sheets), probably number of other things including tire dust. Unlike the pacific garbage island, this stuff isn't visible, so unlikely to get the type of media attention macro-plastic pollution has gotten over the past decades.

TaylorAlexander 3y ago

I'm currently listening to Vandana Shiva's book Terra Viva, which underscores the Indian government's many, many missteps on environmental policy, so perhaps because I have been literally listening to four hours of this today, I would not be surprised if that turned out to be another big mistake that puts some notion of economic production over the environment.

Gibbon1 3y ago
I see pictures of highway construction in developing counties and think gads they're doing stuff we realized was a bad idea 50 years ago. One thing I've really noticed about the US is suburb layouts are designs to shield people from traffic using networks of serpentine streets with courts and dead ends which have the side effect of making them completely unwalkable. Like stores might be 100 yards away if you were a crow. But it's half a mile walking.
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago
  Yep. And while you and me might be tapped in to urbanist YouTube or blogs, the people in power are literally 80 years old, can’t use email, and still think that cars are better than public transit and walkable neighborhoods. It is a problem of the way we allocate power and how susceptible that is to corruption and control by the wealthy, who would rather have old reliable (to their interests) people in charge than young people who might try to upset the balance of things. The more I notice it the more obvious it becomes. I think a lot about how China is getting better and better at manufacturing and in the USA we’re… well maybe staying the same but really just getting worse. And I think it’s the same issue - old politicians who don’t see what’s going on and aren’t willing to make real change. (And the structures that keep things this way.)