1d ago

The Myth of Plastic Recycling.

81 comments

And this is how capitalism eats itself. Nothing can be done without a market incentive, including not suffocating our planet to death.
- Not to absolve capitalism, but it's pretty easy to add market incentives to at least slightly address climate change. The concept of "externalities" has been around for a while, where something has a net social impact outside of its sale. It's normally solved with taxes and levies.
  The real issue seems to be nobody havong the appetite to even attempt the most basic solutions to the problem, mainly thanks to lobbying.
- It ain't capitalism, it's the stupid fucking consumers. If a product, already plastic wrapped 3 times before they touch it, has a tiny hole, "Oh no, that one has a hole. I want another one." Hell, anything imperfect gets tossed. My dumpster at work is packed full of plastic because assholes won't take anything even slightly unperfect.
  It's the idiots buying single, shrink wrapped potatoes. It's the idiots who think a Keurig cup is an ecological disaster, while every other drink they buy wastes 4-5x as much. How about the idiots buying kitchen containers while they toss the, often better, container their food came in?
  When I was young, it was the idiot hippies whining about paper bags, like we were chopping down old-growth forests instead of making them from lumber waste (which is sustainable). Congrats assholes, you won, now we're buried in plastic bags and choking turtles to death.
  Until people stop buying so much new shit, reject plastic containers (as much as feasible) and start paying a premium for biodegradable packaging, we're sunk. Or, better yet, we could force less waste via legislation.
  
  Well, i think it's definitely the "big evil corpos" fault. But that doesn't make your rant wrong either. Just, consumers never want to be told they are part of the problem. Corpos are shit and all but if consumers wouldn't buy shit while there is an alternative, they wouldn't continue making it. Advertising is a big problem there as well, and people, consciously or not, being influenced at all times..
  
  It is capitalism tho. Yes, us dummies enable it, but it is capitalism that currently gives the power to misinform the public and suppress the spread of truth/accurate research to a few rich humans.
  I also want those Karens to be ok buying a piece of fruit that isnt in 7 layers of plastic, but to pretend that most of the environmental diaster we face isnt caused by corprate need for profit at any cost is wild.
  
  Or, better yet, we could force less waste via legislation
  it's amazing you recognise the better solution is legislation yet endlessly rant for consumers (dupped by the industry in this very post) to fix the problem
  
  I just wanted to buy some kiwis at the store yesterday. The only option they had was 4 packs inside of a plastic shell container. They have their own natural container- fucking skin. What the fuck?
  
  Japan can be really weird about this as well. They have fish markets with fish sitting in the open on ice, where they sometimes put a label directly on the fish. And then you sometimes see stores with single bananas in a plastic bag