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.
Comment on Call for UK ban on single-use vapes as more than 5m discarded each week
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 9 months agoI'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.
Maco1969@lemmy.world 9 months ago
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
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 9 months ago
Thank you for this optimistic take. Appreciated and thought provoking
Thetimefarm@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Have you never seen a cardboard carton of juice or milk?
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 9 months ago
Yes. And for the most part, those are lined with a very thin plastic skin - which is what makes recycling difficult. I didn't mention milk or huice because glass bottles would be the obvious answer.
AnAngryAlpaca@feddit.de 9 months ago
You know, people have bought milk from farmers long before they invented plastic packaging…
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 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.
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 9 months ago
Stopping a producer selling it in a country is putting the onus on the producer.
I don't think the narrative of producer v consumer is particularly helpful. Any regulation that hits the producer will also hit the consumer.
I'd be all for a ban on plastic bottles, but you need proper glass bottle deposit schemes in place first
ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 9 months ago
How much less talking about the consumers responsible is appropriate? Or do you think people shouldn’t talk about it at all?
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?