Stop making new plastic would be a good place to start.
this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
133 points (95.2% liked)
politics
19151 readers
3687 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Yeah, that's not going to happen. It's too useful. So the next best thing is to figure out what to do with it going forward.
Plant based plastics, easy.
It's simply petrochemical based plastics pushed by the oil industry that are so bad aren't biodegradable.
Landfills are the answer for the US. It sits completely contained under ground after use, and if technology comes that can utilize the waste in a profitable way, we know exactly where it is.
What about burning it for heat and electricity. I've heard that those plants are really effective now.
Could potentially be a legit use for CCS I guess. If it worked. Needs to get better first.
Although, if this displaces coal on the grid, I guess it's a step in the right direction?
That would help solve the plastic quantity problem, but we should also probably find a way to filter all of the forever chemicals from reaching the air.
Some of those chemicals can do pretty nasty things in high quantities or when repeatedly consumed over a long period of time.
You can recycle it. Make something useful out of it. Instead, they save pennies by buying new.
You often can't though unfortunately. Most plastics can only be recycled a handful of times before they degrade too far. Recycling, while better than nothing, is a far more inefficient and flawed process than it is often presented as. That's why it is far better to reduce usage in the first place and reuse things as is where you can. Of course this is all still easier said than done.
Yeah, the bullshit marketing of companies that presented pollution as a consumer problem instead of a corpo problem is a huge issue. It lead people to believe that plastics were infinitely recyclable, and the only reason there’s any pollution is because consumers just aren’t properly recycling.
In reality, the majority of plastics used aren’t even recyclable, and end up in landfill regardless. But somehow that’s still the fault of the consumer.
Utter bullshit.
I kind of like the approach of the Germans. You build a product, you are responsible for its disposal. Therefore, you have to engineer so that materials are cheaper to get rid of. Sure, recycled plastics degrade and eventually can't be used for anything. But, it should be up to the last manufacturer to dispose of it in a safe way.
I entirely agree, and that does sound like a good approach. I just caution against presenting recycling as a solution rather than as a reduction of harm.
By recycle it, do you mean throw it in the blue bin? Because if so that's not really recycling. That's just choosing to throw it in an overseas landfill instead of a local one.
If it were actually comprehensive, they wouldn't need to add "most" and "ever." Those two words indicate that they're patting themselves on the back for clearing a low bar.
It’s a start, and much better than “recycle ur plastic bags, folks”
Then they should call it a start instead of insulting everyone by expecting them to buy this "most comprehensive evar" garbage.
A low bar is better than nothing. I don't know if this bill is comprehensive or not, but it still is better than what Republican Party offers.
"Better than Republicans" is only an accomplishment if you think that it takes effort to be better than people who actively work at being bigoted turds all the time.