I'm not sure what you are saying. Straws, like plastic carriers were a well-established product that could be beneficially regulated tp reduce plastic waste. Single-use vapes were a new product category that pretty much came out of nowhere and are now likely to be regulated. Do you want a general purpose ban on every single-use item containing plastic? Not a bad idea, but it would be a big, quite radical change to the way people lived their lives - no biros etc.
Comment on Call for UK ban on single-use vapes as more than 5m discarded each week
FredericChopin_@feddit.uk 9 months ago
The fact that these things came out after banning plastic straws shows nobody knows what the fuck they’re doing.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 9 months ago
FredericChopin_@feddit.uk 9 months ago
Straws a literal drop on the ocean compared to what corporations are doing to the oceans.
I am happy to have paper straws if it helps the planet, but they chose the smallest thing they could do and as always put the onus on the consumers and not the producers.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 9 months ago
they chose the smallest thing they could do
They initially chose a thing that would have marginal impact on consumers' behaviour, yes. Starting in October 2023, people will no longer be able to buy plastic cutlery, plates, bowls, trays, balloon sticks, and other items.
Which items would you nominate for an immediate ban in addition?
FredericChopin_@feddit.uk 9 months ago
I would shift the onus on the people buying the shit (consumers) to the people making it (producers).
Maybe we could look at fishing nets, plastic bottles etc.
To be clear I am all for doing more for the planet but I take issue with the blame being misplaced on consumers when the producers are polluting orders of magnitude more than we are.
aeternum@kbin.social 9 months ago
why do you think the producers are producing these things? Because consumer demand. If we stopped purchasing these things, they wouldn't produce them. They only produce them because that's where the money is.
FredericChopin_@feddit.uk 9 months ago
Which is more likely.
The majority of consumers giving a shit about anything that doesn’t affect them.
Stopping the production of things we actually don’t want people to buy anymore.
It’s much easier to regulate a handful of companies than it is to educate several billion people and try and get them to change buying habits.
That’s like excusing a serial killer because victims are plentiful. You wouldn’t blame the victims and tell them to stay away from serial killers. You would punish the serial killer no?
Maco1969@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Most of the world didn’t use single use plastics until the last fifty years, we could get rid of it all easily, we simply choose not to.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 9 months ago
Sure, we coudl go back to washing powder in boxes, using fountain pens, go back buying fruit loose from greengrocers, make our own yogurt, visit a creamery with a glass jar to buy cream, and get rid of most ready meals. I think "easily" is rather under-estimating the level of disruption it would cause the average person
Suspicious@lemmy.wtf 9 months ago
Tbh I think you are overestimating the disruption, lots people do already buy washing powder in cardboard boxes(it’s also a better product BC you buy it in bigger volumes and you can measure out the exact right amount for your machine and water hardness), picking your fruit from a loose box in the supermarket and putting into your shopping cart in a paper bag or a bag you bring yourself is also super normal, why would you have to make your own yougert? Why would you need to go to a creamry for cream rather than use the supermarket glass bottle return scheme used for milk? I feel like I should note that there a lot of food-safe resins and waxes that can liquid-proof containers that aren’t actualy prohibitively expensive but a bit more expensive and currently less widely produced than plastics. But considering what we’re doing to the planet that sacrifice is negligable
Yeah the pre-portioned and plated ready meals you buy from the fridge section would probably stop being thing, but there also food-bar things that serve a very similar product
Obviously life would change a bit and it wouldn’t be painless but I really think people overestimate it and something absolutely has to change
Thetimefarm@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Have you never seen a cardboard carton of juice or milk?
Mane25@feddit.uk 9 months ago
This whole government makes a whole lot more sense once you come to the realisation that they’re all mentally challenged in the literal sense. It wouldn’t surprise me if they couldn’t even conceptualise how the two things are related.
Uranium_Green@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Nah, that does a disservice to both mentally challenged people, and lets the Tories off for how cruel they really are
Mane25@feddit.uk 9 months ago
You can still be cruel and mentally challenged.
They got in to power because of privilege. Those with privilege and intelligence have long since abandoned the Tory party, so you’re just left with the bottom of the barrel; the privileged and dim - it’s no wonder this country is failing.
It’s like that whole encryption thing they’re failing to push through; the fact that “this is an embarrassingly stupid and unworkable idea” never gets brought up just goes to show. They don’t even know what encryption is, it’s a joke.
Blake@feddit.uk 9 months ago
Dude, they aren’t lacking in intelligence, they’re educated and very capable people. They don’t give a shit about plastic pollution, they just want to try and reduce the impact of protesters. They don’t give a shit about how bad their encryption law would be for people and businesses because it would give them more power and a stronger chilling effect so they can suppress dissidents. They are not lacking in mental faculties whatsoever, they are playing you for a fool.
FatLegTed@feddit.uk 9 months ago
Or even cares. As usual cheap Chinese tat (other third world tat markets are available) and its lapped up here without a thought.
affiliate@lemmy.world 9 months ago
at least nobody’s vaping out of straws
ElBarto@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
You might not be!
aeternum@kbin.social 9 months ago
straws aren't even the problem. The largest source of plastic in the ocean is fishing nets and discarded fishing equipment.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 9 months ago
The interesting question becomes where these are coming from and why. Which countries?
Straws may not be the problem, but I remember straws being washed up all over the beach.