Planet or Plastic?

People are aware and are trying to do their part. We've discussed it on DL quite a bit. Many are resistant. They like the convenience of plastic - the prioritize their convenience over the environment. Nothing new.

Straws.

Really pissed at my husband who has been buying eggs that are sold in three layers of hard plastic. That’s a lot when you consider the egg carton is a foot long. What happened to simple cardboard egg boxes?

No lie, when I was a kid we emptied the kitchen garbage once a week. In summer it got a little smelly, but my mother was adamant not to waste the brown paper grocery bags we used in the plastic garbage pail.

What went into the kitchen garbage? Eggshells, potato eyes, cucumber peels (my grandmother insisted they were poison), onion skins, garlic skin, melon and orange rind, cardboard from meat department, slimy bits of lettuce that were cut off so we could use the rest, Kool aid envelopes. One milk carton a week because 5hats all my father would buy. (We never got to drench our cereal in a sea of milk)

No plastic. No paper cups or plates. No leftover food (we had so little food that my mother would put anything we kids didn’t eat back in the fridge and either we or she ate it later). We reused aluminum foil.

Products like hair dryers came in cardboard boxes, not welded to heavy duty plastic requiring a Stanley knife to extract.

My dad used tin vegetable cans in his basement work area to hold pens, knives, paint brushes, screws, nails, glues, small tools. The thought of going out spending money for storage containers was hilarious. Coffee cans and vegetable tins were already paid for.

R3, there's also the packaging nightmare of a very small item being vacuum-packed into a much larger hard-plastic case, for merchandising or "security" reasons. It pissed me off as a teen when it started happening for small electronics. Then it became standard for so many things. I've noticed some retailers and manufacturers backing away from it, but not fast enough.

I have a neighbor who doesn't even recycle. She brags about having a "trash compactor" (are they even legal?) that everything goes into, and I kind of want to blow her in to the authorities except she's kind of old and crazy. I once suggested she can get a blue recycling bin delivered for free from the county, and she looked at me like I was from another planet.

People who buy bottled water are evil. If you don't live in Flint, buy a metal or reusable water bottle and fill it at home. It'll save you a lot of money too.

R5 Same in my parents' home, as well as grandparents. My grandfather used plastic yogurt containers for seedlings, sprouts, and small flowers before planting in his garden. I recall him doing the same with frozen orange concentrate containers too. I carry on the tradition of re-use by storing demitasse spoons in shiny tomato paste tins, and have made country style light fixtures from vintage painted tins. I use larger tins to raise up furniture and crates in my basement in case of flood. Single use plastics should be eliminated. I always refuse plastic cocktail swizzles when out too. I never see people drinking from them. In Britain, paper straws are enjoying a resurgence.

I stopped buying a lot of things because of plastic containers, and I look for things that are sold in glass, paper or metal, which are the only true recyclables.

Op thanks for the thread. I'm the chicken little screaming global warming will kill us (and it will), so these threads offer hope that people are aware and do care.

I was at a seminar recently about "socially conscious marketing" or whatever, and I heard one panelist say that she had previously advised a high-end vodka company not to choose a "green" message as their public service angle, because their bottles are not recyclable. So the company went with supporting the arts.

She wouldn't name the company, but it had to Absolut, right? They had that campaign of artist-designed bottles and a whole campaign around art and artists. But is it true that some glass liquor bottles are not recyclable? That sounds weird. I always thought any glass jar or bottle can be recycled, anywhere.

Anyone here encountered Datalounge's rapidly pro-plastic bag troll? That bitch is due to pop in here any minute...

Rabidly*

Glass recycling

Ban the manufacture of plastic.

Period.

All else is that Bitch frau Concerned Recycling Team Mom.

I'll probably be accused of being the "I have a friend..." troll, but here goes: I have a friend who works in environmental causes, particularly recycling, who told me that sadly, most of what's recycled ends up in landfills regardless of which bin it's placed. We were discussing the new composting bins my condo building had installed (actually, how disgusting they still get a day after they're emptied and cleaned) when he told me of this sad truth. It's rather frustrating; I'm one of those people who believes in reusing and recycling (like R5 and R8) and make an effort to avoid plastic whenever possible, always separates my recyclables and I even supported the condo board when they proposed the composting bins.

But I have been worn down over the years, and the general attitude that somehow we'll find a way to make our overuse of plastic and other harmful products go away without any consequences has taken a toll. I don't know what to do or what to tell anyone who poo-poos the idea of recycling. I fear that the only way we'll learn is by having to suffer a catastrophe, and then it will be too late.

[quote]But seriously, how will people 50 or 100 years from now judge all of us who allowed this to happen, in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries?

They'll wonder how we could have possibly been aware of the situation and done nothing. And they'll hate us for it. So, if DataLounge is around in 50 or 100 years and these archives are accessible, I'm sorry. Some of us tried.

R16, that means we have to make different choices or changes in our buying habits, buying more things in paper, glass and metal and avoiding the cupcakes in plastic sarcophagi.

R17 you should avoid those cupcakes for many reasons. The packaging is the least of your concerns if you eat those.

R7 I love my Thermos and my tea flask, I don't care if that makes me a Frau.

On rare occasion I forget them and I'm far from home/work/a faucet or in a hot place, I will only then buy a plastic bottled water and then feel guilty about it for days after. I also have a handful of Starbucks trips in a year and try to avoid the plastic cups for my drink of choice, but a few times the baristas just make it how they're trained and I end up chagrined and clutching a plastic bubble cup and a plastic straw. I hate being that puffed-up privileged Western guy sighing and saying " I don't know, it's tough, man", but...I don't know, and it is tough.

That article OP posted is a tough hang to read, too. Seeing little kids out of school because they're picking through dirty trash in Manila for $3 a day...it's hard to swallow an image that like that and feel ok about it. How could that change? NatGeo's follow-up article suggests all we can realistically do now is refuse to use plastic and volunteer to pick litter locally, then lobby for countries/states to tax the use and vending of it. The U.S. is pretty much the biggest culprit for use and disposal, so until they change their ways we're all fucked.

It's great to talk about recycling and reusing but most important is reducing.

I skimmed through the article. I don't know if they mentioned the various scientific technologies that are being developed where a bacteria has been developed that will essentially "consume" the plastics and neutralize them.. There are a ton of new scientific technologies out there I would hope will render some sort of solution. I really do have hope in this area..

If you really think about it, plastic is technically "natural" in the sense that it is from the earth.. There's some term for it, but I'm too lazy to look it up... Google if interested and post...

[quote] sadly, most of what's recycled ends up in landfills regardless of which bin it's placed.

I've thought this from the very beginning. Recycling obviously meant to pacify the populace and getting us all feeling something was being done. It's essentially a diversionary industry and government tactic.

If we were serious we would address the problem at the root with the industry and manufacturers and not fob it off on the end user. They are passing on the true cost of plastic to the people and other living things on the planet.

Not really "we", most of the plastic in the oceans came from Asia.

[quote] [R16], that means we have to make different choices or changes in our buying habits

I love you for this r17 but this shows how we have accepted the burden of cleaning up after the industry.

And our heads are fucked with. With guilt that's not of our doing as r19 poignantly posts:

[quote] I will only then buy a plastic bottled water and then feel guilty about it for days after.

What I'm also worried about it how much microplastic we're all consuming the water supply and via seafood. Can plastic particles lodge in our cells or damage organs? Is that going to shorten our lifespans?

Another question is how microplastic in the soil adversely affects plant life. I'm concerned.

You're worrying about the wrong thing r25. Don't worry about the plastic. Do worry about the plastics industry.

Who cares? I'm not going to have kids or live long enough to really see the impact. Fuck this planet.

Fuck me, I'm over this shit. Kwame gimme your cock.

R21 - there is no doubt research is being done on bacteria that eats plastics. They have had some success. But a solution is a long way off. More important there are concerns. Like it or not plastic is every where and not just in soda or water bottles. Take a walk around your home and check out how many pipes and conduits are made of plastic. What do you think would happen if this plastic eating bacteria is let out in the wild?

R29, They Came for the Plastic sounds like a SyFy Friday night movie just waiting for your script!

(I joke but understand unintended consequences of genetic engineering are a concern)

Vinyl and synthetic fibres are proving to be a menace to the planet, and more specifically the oceans too. We should all be asking ourselves if we really need all of this.

[quote] We should all be asking ourselves if we really need all of this.

And at what real cost? And who's bearing it?

I remember my neighbor girl teens would wrap their hair in old orange juice cans to either curl or defrizz? Before Tupperware, we would reuse old jars and plastic containers to put in fridge with leftovers.

Store things in cardboard boxes in attic, with old newspaper for glass items and Xmas ornaments. . Now that is commonly seen as a fire hazard. Or could sustain water damage from leaky roof, etc. so now we buy huge plastic bins to store stuff. Then super fraus, Martha Stewart, home goddesses with blogs present pantries and crafts and meals, baking homes where perfection is the dream, and expectation. Not only do you need to organize everything, but must be in matching bins, chalkboard markers and labels. Scrapbooking, Tupperware, the container store!!! Hell the hardware store with special little plastic cabinets to organize nails and such. Before we cut put them in an old coffee can, or cigar box. I miss reusing and repurposing. That way we get more from our initial purchase, coffee, and then don’t have to buy special container to put pencils in, so saved money on that end. I know a guy whose kids will NOT eat leftovers, they refuse!!! And he lets them times done changed.

Yes there is a tremendous amount of cognitive dissonance going on in the entire world. I find the complacency most maddening. A couple of times a month I clean up the front of my property and by far the most garbage is plastic drink bottles and fast food containers.

I see Starbucks, McDonalds, Cocoa-Cola as the worst offenders and leaders in the disposable plastic shame. I take the point about plastic manufacturers being the absolute worst. They will push their products so plastic will be consumed through all levels of manufacture.

The thing which gets me is that not one single piece of plastic ever made has broken down into its component parts. So, calling it natural is a stretch.

Public pressure can actually work. I'm old enough to remember when McDonalds finally caved to pressure and got rid of their styrofoam sandwich clamshells, going back to paper and cardboard.

No one paid much attention when soda companies switched from glass bottles to plastic, but there could be a leader in one of those corporations who would decide to switch back.

Well, they don’t do styrofoam as much on East coast. Last time I was in California saw more, which surprised me. Industries now built on plastic and wouldn’t survive without: container store, Tupperware, Rubbermaid, garbage bins, “spring”water bottles, soda bottles, Keurig. Many more. It’s disheartening.

I agree with you, r36. But at least plastic reusable containers (Tupperware type stuff) and things bought for long-term storage (those big bins) are not nearly as bad as "single-use" shit. Plastic grocery bags may be the worst, since they are either never or hardly ever recycled.

Plastic drink cups and straws are horrible. And the clear hard plastic packaging so many things are packed in, instead of paper boxes that worked so well for so long, really should be banned.

Give me plastic, or give me death...

Why should we have to pressure companies not to use plastic?

Why should we change our behavior to enable the plastic industry to pass on the costs to use while they make more money at our exoense?

I had no idea that the inside of disposable coffee-cups is plastic-coated. Does that mean I've been drinking liquid plastic.....? *disturbed*

I've been occasionally taking my own refillable thermos cup to my local barista for a few months anyway, but I think I'll make that a permanent habit.