3 ms·

I love the idea, but we could use glass, cardboard, wood, fabric for 90% of the things we are currently packaging with plastic. The cheese I am just eating not

I love the idea, but we could use glass, cardboard, wood, fabric for 90% of the things we are currently packaging with plastic. The cheese I am just eating not just has plastic around, but even plastic between every single cheese slice. Stuns me that wasting resources like this does not get taxed.

skybrian 2y ago
If an alternative is more expensive, it seems like we should at least consider whether it’s also wasting more resources? I would want to see the comparison done well, rather than simply assuming that plastic must be worse.
- honkycat 2y ago
  We don't bake cost of proper disposal into materials, that is why plastic is so cheap. The Chinese manufacture the stuff like crazy and ships it all of SEA. Rural communities dump it into their rivers and all of that washes out into the ocean which ends up EVERYWHERE. Plastic, and oil in general, has been a global ecologic CATASTROPHE.
  - Dylan16807 2y ago
    Cost of disposal for plastic is very small. You can get it into a well-made landfill for a couple pennies per pound in the US. Charging manufacturers an extra little fraction of a penny for an item isn't a bad idea but it wouldn't affect much. What matters is government desire to handle trash properly.
    - leafmeal 2y ago
      If you factor in the cost of any government managed trash cleanup, it might. Basically require producers to cover all of the costs required to get the trash disposed of properly. Filtering micro-plastics out of the ocean? Add it to the plastic tax. Health costs from birth defects caused by certain plastic exposure? Add it to the tax for those plastics. I think the market works amazingly as long as there's government to line the incentives up right.
      - Dylan16807 2y ago
        I think disposing properly would mostly be a few more public trash cans and a ban on exporting plastic and trash to get fake-recycled. Which would not cost very much.
        honkycat 2y ago
        The USA is not the problem, it is SEA. Most of our trash ends up in landfills, which is much preferable to the ocean.
- permo-w 2y ago
  it's not even necessarily about waste of resources. many microplastics and other complex oil-derived chemicals are quite obviously not [known to be] safe for human and other animals' health. we know pretty much for sure that most wood, glass types and natural fibres are safe.

skybrian 2y ago

If an alternative is more expensive, it seems like we should at least consider whether it’s also wasting more resources? I would want to see the comparison done well, rather than simply assuming that plastic must be worse.

honkycat 2y ago
We don't bake cost of proper disposal into materials, that is why plastic is so cheap. The Chinese manufacture the stuff like crazy and ships it all of SEA. Rural communities dump it into their rivers and all of that washes out into the ocean which ends up EVERYWHERE. Plastic, and oil in general, has been a global ecologic CATASTROPHE.
- Dylan16807 2y ago
  Cost of disposal for plastic is very small. You can get it into a well-made landfill for a couple pennies per pound in the US. Charging manufacturers an extra little fraction of a penny for an item isn't a bad idea but it wouldn't affect much. What matters is government desire to handle trash properly.
  - leafmeal 2y ago
    If you factor in the cost of any government managed trash cleanup, it might. Basically require producers to cover all of the costs required to get the trash disposed of properly. Filtering micro-plastics out of the ocean? Add it to the plastic tax. Health costs from birth defects caused by certain plastic exposure? Add it to the tax for those plastics. I think the market works amazingly as long as there's government to line the incentives up right.
    - Dylan16807 2y ago
      I think disposing properly would mostly be a few more public trash cans and a ban on exporting plastic and trash to get fake-recycled. Which would not cost very much.
      - honkycat 2y ago
        The USA is not the problem, it is SEA. Most of our trash ends up in landfills, which is much preferable to the ocean.
permo-w 2y ago
it's not even necessarily about waste of resources. many microplastics and other complex oil-derived chemicals are quite obviously not [known to be] safe for human and other animals' health. we know pretty much for sure that most wood, glass types and natural fibres are safe.