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In terms of weight, CO2 emissions, durability, and protecting the product, plastic is probably a lot better for the environment as a whole than a lot of “sustai

In terms of weight, CO2 emissions, durability, and protecting the product, plastic is probably a lot better for the environment as a whole than a lot of “sustainable” packaging. In the grand scheme of things plastic is a very minor part of our environmental problems - though it does have some nice pictures you can take. However, it seems to attract a bunch of people who think they prove their environmental commitment by irritating people as much as possible. Multi-use plastic bags and paper bags are much more energy intensive to produce than single use plastic bags. Paper bags also fail at much higher rates (handles come out, small tears propagate rapidly, any moisture weakens it). In addition, paper products such as straws and cups need to be coated for use with liquids. The coating (likely PFAS) is probably worse overall than if the straw or cup were just made out of plastic.

throwway120385 3y ago
The word "probably" is doing a lot of lifting in this post.
warcher 3y ago
There’s a lot of strange psychology at work in the plastics packaging media zeitgeist. It’s hard to think of comparable examples of stuff that matters so little in the grand scheme but gets so many people so bothered. People really really want to be heated over plastic packaging, all evidence indicating that it just doesn’t matter relative to our real environmental issues.
wongarsu 3y ago
That depends on your delivery chain. For tumbling down a conveyor at a sorting center, getting thrown around, fall damage, cuts, slashes, sliding over rough surfaces, etc cardboard is vastly superior. For sitting out in the rain plastic is better. It might just be that Amazon delivery chains in the US looks very different from most other places. A US package might never see the inside of a DHL sorting center, but spend a lot of time outside, making plastic a valid choice. A package in Europe on the other hand won't see more than two minutes of rain but a lot of rough handling designed for cardboard boxes, making plastic a suboptimal choice (even before environmental regulations)

throwway120385 3y ago

The word "probably" is doing a lot of lifting in this post.

warcher 3y ago

There’s a lot of strange psychology at work in the plastics packaging media zeitgeist. It’s hard to think of comparable examples of stuff that matters so little in the grand scheme but gets so many people so bothered. People really really want to be heated over plastic packaging, all evidence indicating that it just doesn’t matter relative to our real environmental issues.

wongarsu 3y ago

That depends on your delivery chain. For tumbling down a conveyor at a sorting center, getting thrown around, fall damage, cuts, slashes, sliding over rough surfaces, etc cardboard is vastly superior. For sitting out in the rain plastic is better. It might just be that Amazon delivery chains in the US looks very different from most other places. A US package might never see the inside of a DHL sorting center, but spend a lot of time outside, making plastic a valid choice. A package in Europe on the other hand won't see more than two minutes of rain but a lot of rough handling designed for cardboard boxes, making plastic a suboptimal choice (even before environmental regulations)