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We can buy ourselves a huge amount of time if we just stopped letting countries dump metric millions of tonnes of plastic into bodies of water for them to be en

by zo1 1y ago

We can buy ourselves a huge amount of time if we just stopped letting countries dump metric millions of tonnes of plastic into bodies of water for them to be endlessly ground-down into micro-sizes. As it is now, we're watching like deer in headlights, as the third-world pollutes the entire world with plastic. Micro-plastics and forever chemicals will be this century's Lead.

illiac786 1y ago
Do you have any reference for this? My understanding is that the bigger consumer of plastic are first world countries, by far. And since decades.
- zo1 1y ago
  https://www.weforum.org/stories/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluting-our-oceans-comes-from-just-10-rivers/ https://www.weforum.org/stories/2018/06/90-of-plastic-pollut... And the paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.7b02368 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.7b02368
  - illiac786 1y ago
    I understand where the plastic ends, I am saying that is the not who where it is bought and thrown away. Developed countries consume (buy and throw away) most of the plastic. Then, on top of it, they ship their trash to third world countries.
sheepscreek 1y ago
I wouldn’t specifically criticize the third world for this issue. It’s a problem we’re all contributing to in different ways. Also, let’s not forget that a lot of first world waste gets shipped off to the third world for “recycling”, some of which inevitably ends up in the waterways and into the ocean. For instance, one of my favorite pens is from a Japanese company that has consistently resisted making it reusable. Therefore, Japan, known for its cleanliness, indirectly contributes to a significant portion of avoidable waste. Of course, North America has its own equivalent, such as Bic pens. Not to mention the vast amount of wasteful toys. The third world, on the other hand, faces a slightly different challenge, primarily centered around plastic bags, bottles and containers. On a slight tangent, maybe the real problem is consumption. But good luck taking that up with pro-capitalists!
- bamboozled 1y ago
  Japan is huge on plastic. It's shocking for many people when they arrive here. It's absolutely wild the amount of plastic that is used and how little effort there is to reduce its use. I've seen blocks of land covered in weed mat after a demolition was performed and before the next build or sale of the land...it's then just disposed of... In the countryside in Japan, plastic burning is still fairly common. Civil engineers just bury those 1 ton bags in roadside and riverside embankments full of soil...if that embankment is ever ripped up again, the soil is going to be full of fragments of those bags, either way they’re shedding into waterways starting from now. Yes Japan incinerates a lot of plastic but there is only one incinerator which does C02 capture at the moment. I honestly think the average person in Japan sees it like it's just organic material. Interestingly, it’s a lot of work as a consumer to constantly sort it, clean it and dispose of it to code.

by zo1 1y ago

illiac786 1y ago

Do you have any reference for this? My understanding is that the bigger consumer of plastic are first world countries, by far. And since decades.

zo1 1y ago
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluting-our-oceans-comes-from-just-10-rivers/ https://www.weforum.org/stories/2018/06/90-of-plastic-pollut... And the paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.7b02368 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.7b02368
- illiac786 1y ago
  I understand where the plastic ends, I am saying that is the not who where it is bought and thrown away. Developed countries consume (buy and throw away) most of the plastic. Then, on top of it, they ship their trash to third world countries.

sheepscreek 1y ago

I wouldn’t specifically criticize the third world for this issue. It’s a problem we’re all contributing to in different ways. Also, let’s not forget that a lot of first world waste gets shipped off to the third world for “recycling”, some of which inevitably ends up in the waterways and into the ocean. For instance, one of my favorite pens is from a Japanese company that has consistently resisted making it reusable. Therefore, Japan, known for its cleanliness, indirectly contributes to a significant portion of avoidable waste. Of course, North America has its own equivalent, such as Bic pens. Not to mention the vast amount of wasteful toys. The third world, on the other hand, faces a slightly different challenge, primarily centered around plastic bags, bottles and containers. On a slight tangent, maybe the real problem is consumption. But good luck taking that up with pro-capitalists!

bamboozled 1y ago
Japan is huge on plastic. It's shocking for many people when they arrive here. It's absolutely wild the amount of plastic that is used and how little effort there is to reduce its use. I've seen blocks of land covered in weed mat after a demolition was performed and before the next build or sale of the land...it's then just disposed of... In the countryside in Japan, plastic burning is still fairly common. Civil engineers just bury those 1 ton bags in roadside and riverside embankments full of soil...if that embankment is ever ripped up again, the soil is going to be full of fragments of those bags, either way they’re shedding into waterways starting from now. Yes Japan incinerates a lot of plastic but there is only one incinerator which does C02 capture at the moment. I honestly think the average person in Japan sees it like it's just organic material. Interestingly, it’s a lot of work as a consumer to constantly sort it, clean it and dispose of it to code.