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Are there any examples of such food safe/isolated products that you think are justified in being packaged with single use plastic?
Aha, the question of whether washing by hand or using a dishwasher is better! Another person on this thread made a good point about the amount of uses a ceramic plate needs in order to offset the carbon footprint of its production.
So, I suppose the real question is can we use a dishwasher enough times to offset the carbon footprint of its production? I would say yes, and if we can assume that a dishwasher loads is less intensive than the same load washed by hand, then the dishwasher is better in the long run.
But what do we do with the dishwasher when it's no longer usable?...
Incredibly important point! We have to assume the local government takes composting seriously for composting to work, which we can't rely on.
The building I work in (downtown in Vancouver) doesn't even recycle (what the fuck?)
Reusable, washable ceramic wins
Thank you for sharing this! I am currently in Vancouver, so it was especially relevant :)
I guess the summary is that paper plates cost an amount to make and are used once, whereas a ceramic plate costs a larger amount to make but can be used many times. At this point it becomes a per-use question of which is more costly from an environmental perspective: manufacturing, transporting and tossing every time vs manufacturing once and washing 150 times to pay off the carbon debt of manufacturing. It seems washing is the solution!
So what you're saying is that if companies can't use their fancy packaging, they'll have a smaller profit margin on the actual good they're selling?
The system is very fucked!
I've heard of this author, thanks for the recommendation!
Thank you for the recommendation! I will check it out
I agree, our ambition seems useful at first but tends to become a curse once we have what we need. If you take space exploration as an example, I feel that until we go to mars humanity is always going to want to go to mars. And then, we will want to do the next thing. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when, assuming we can. If we can, we will.
Unfortunately, a very annoying human happens to be leading this effort at the moment.
True. In the grand scheme of things, everything is destined to become waste eventually, all we can do is hope that it is useful waste and aim to slow its flow. I guess if compostable waste is more clean than ceramic/metal/glass waste, that is a point in it's favour, but maybe those materials can be cleanly recycled with proper care/planning?
Haha, I like your style!
Would this be a point in favour of washing dishes then? It results in more employment, but is this considered a win for the environment in this context?
This raises a question around the environmental impact of shipping banana leaves to places where they don't naturally occur and whether they'd last that long. although perhaps it would be a by-product of the process that already brings bananas to almost every store on earth.
I remember cartoons used to have a common trope character who would build gadgets out of old junk in their shed. Now that we're living in a world with plenty of e-waste, it feels this trope never materialised. Where are all the modded smartphones or homemade robots? Is the cost of modding/fixing something simply higher than the cost of buying a new product?
Unfortunately these types of dedicated shops tend to be expensive - at least this has been the case for the soap dispensaries I've been to. Until they're more widely adopted, I guess that problem won't go away. It's an unfortunate paradox! I'd love for governments (or benevolent rich folks) to subsidise businesses like these so they can appeal to a broader audience.
100%
At a minimum, if a company wants to use a certain type of packaging for their products, they need to prove that they have the means to fully reuse it as part of their own mini circular economy. If their packaging is found at the beach, it can be placed into a bin, sorted and sent right back to them, and they're happy to receive it.
A friend of mine works in pharma research and said the amount of plastic waste is staggering. The general belief is that materials need to be sterile and this is the only way, however it sounds like they're beginning to question this narrative.
It sounds like a potentially lucrative problem to solve!
For sure! However these are conscious choices that informed consumers can make. What I'd love to see is a world where an uninformed consumer can choose default products that have no impact on the environment because the government has made it so. No additional effort is required on the part of the consumer.
Want foodstuffs? Those are purchasable by weight and if you need a container they're cardboard or glass. Want soap? The store stocks bars of it or liquid by weight.
Imagine if we had swarms of little insect-sized robots that could sort waste working alongside specialised organisms that then eat that waste.
My partner is vegan. I am not, but since we met I've been eating a lot less meat and animal products because we like to cook for each other at home. I remember walking past a butcher a couple of years ago that had beef cuts hanging on hooks by the window and it made me feel sick - for the first time I was seeing it as flesh instead of "meat".
I'll check them out thank you