They’ll just pass all the additional costs (plus a little extra profit because why not) onto the consumer
Comment on I'm doing my part
huey_m@reddthat.com 1 day ago
There needs to just be a blanket, punitive, 100+% tax on any and all single use plastics that are not medical devices. Obviously there’s lots of other bigger environmental issues that need to be tackled but this really seems like a pretty obvious one imo.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
pingveno@lemmy.world 1 day ago
If so, then okay. The idea is that single use plastic is used because plastic is so damn cheap. From what I understand, the precursor is basically a waste product from oil extraction. But add a small tax and it breaks the model.
A single cheap fork is less than US$0.01 on a commercial restaurant website. For many restaurants, that is easier to deal with than washing dishes. But let’s tack on a $0.05 tax per single use item or $0.50 single use tax. Pass it directly on to the customer on the check.
That puts single use more on an equal footing with restaurants that are reusing dishes. Single use plastic doesn’t have its true cost built in. A tax can do that in a transparent way.
huey_m@reddthat.com 1 day ago
The point is to increase the cost of the plastics to the point that alternatives start to actually be competitive. And really, we’re just making them actually pay for some of the externalities they’re getting a free ride on.
If you use government to increase the cost of a thing to the point alternatives become cheaper, most businesses are going to switch. They aren’t sticking with plastics out of ideology or anything… it’s just cheap. And it shouldn’t be.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 hours ago
And really, we’re just making them actually pay for some of the externalities they’re getting a free ride on.
But it wouldn’t be making them pay for that because they would pass that cost onto the consumer as they always do.
huey_m@reddthat.com 8 hours ago
We all pay for it anyway via the negative impacts. It should be the consumers buying the thing that pay for it. Why should society at large be paying for the negative impacts of a product not everyone is buying? Makes no sense. If your product is causing a big environmental impact, that needs to be paid for by the company making the product and the consumers buying it.
Daefsdeda@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Literally happened in the netherlands
ironycanal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Seems like you just hate freedom and small business’s.
Leviathan@lemmy.world 1 day ago
How about a child’s freedom to not have microplastics in their brain?
ironycanal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
No. Children are part of a conspiracy to replace us. To gut our cultures and force every single one of us out sooner or later. Better they stay property, or you know they would.
vanillama@programming.dev 1 day ago
If you hadn’t say this I’d have assumed everything else was unironic, well done lol
Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
That was vetoed in 1904 when this started. No one gets a choice anymore.
Babys act as a great microplastics removal system for mothers tho!
0x0@infosec.pub 1 day ago
Uh uh muh fredomz
You had leaded gasoline for way too long and it shows
ironycanal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Yeah! Muh freedomz! You hate em!
huey_m@reddthat.com 1 day ago
Fair point.