this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2025
462 points (97.7% liked)
hmmm
4930 readers
284 users here now
For things that are "hmmm".
Rule 1: All post titles except for meta posts should be just plain "hmmm" and nothing else, no emotes, no capitalisation, no extending it to "hmmmm" etc.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I wish we had a plastic tax. Everything is wrapped in so much unnecessary plastic.
NJ had a single use plastic bag tax. To get around it companies increased the thickness of plastic bags and gave it for free. Apparently the thickness is what separated a single use bag with a reusable one. Politicians are clowns ๐คก.
It's supposed to be a game of cat and mouse, but right now the cat isn't even trying. I think what's needed is some sort of 'living legislation' that constantly updates to close loopholes that stakeholders find in it. Iirc this should be possible in common law systems with deliberately vague laws whose interpretation keeps getting updated by court cases.
Wasn't that the idea behing the Chevron doctrine? Leave the specifics up to experts rather than bamboozling Congresscritters about details.
Same up in Connecticut. I have so many crappy "reusable" plastic bags from Target pickup orders during the height of the pandemic. I can't bring myself to get rid of them because they're "reusable", so I use them to hold donations for the thrift store and get rid of them that way. I also use them as packing material.
I have other, nicer bags I use when I go to shopping.
Politicians are clowns is what you said while it was companies skirting the spirit of the law by exploiting a loophole.
Amazing that is your take
Imagine writing laws as a job and leaving such an obvious loophole.
Yes, politicians are clowns.
I would envision a plastic tax that is based on weight of the material created. Every ounce costs $.10.Make the producer last. Same with Styrofoam. That money could be funneled back to some green initiative.
Unfortunately, the plastic tax is enacted in terms of climate upheavals, and levied upon the poorest people in the world, usually in some other nation entirely rather than the originator.:-(
That's, why we need a monetary plastic tax to discourage its use.
Except "we" (imperial nations) don't want to pay that, generally speaking.
Notably, some places do think of such things though, and do have such taxes in place. Though conservatives are now in charge in many places in the world, so these are the local hold-outs against an overwhelming global trend.
The plastic is not a problem if its processed properly after disposal. Though I'm aware that it usually isn't.