Rather than face hard truths about reorganizing our system to stop waste, the world is falling victim to empty and inefficient cleanup promises from the tech industry.
Big Tech’s Waste “Solutions” Are a Scam | Rather than face hard truths about reorganizing our system to stop waste, the world is falling victim to empty and inefficient cleanup promises from the te…::Rather than face hard truths about reorganizing our system to stop waste, the world is falling victim to empty and inefficient cleanup promises from the tech industry.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle isn’t a joke, and is in order of what should take precedence. And as for plastic recycling, https://text.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled (tl;dr it’s total bullshit. it’s expensive to do, and recycled plastic is worse and more expensive than virgin plastic. It probably cannot even handle two recycles before becoming totally worthless, that’s how crappy recycled plastic is)
The dumbest part is how we are disallowed from reusing many things. One small example out of a limitless number: Every time I buy milk I have to buy a brand new plastic container, because that is the only way I can purchase it. And it is the exact same as the old kind of plastic container. I can’t just go to the store and pour a refill and pay for that.
I don’t buy milk regularly, but where I live there are dairies that use glass bottles. You get charged a deposit for a new bottle, and get the money back when you return it to the store. The glass bottles are washed and reused; although the plastic cap & seal are disposable. Also, the milk sold this way is a little more expensive than the milk sold in plastic jugs or paper cartons.
Obviously this produces less trash than plastic disposable jugs. Whether it is more “environmentally friendly” depends also on energy consumption, though. Plastic jugs are really cheap to make, and they are lighter to ship than glass bottles and thus use less fuel in the delivery trucks. So there’s a tradeoff, and I expect the dairies have a better idea of this tradeoff than I do.
So, the author’s preferred solution apparently involves completely overhauling our society, down to the mindsets and living conditions of every single person. (Note that this would goes beyond even the usual canard of “overthrowing capitalism”; socialist countries have historically polluted just as bad, or worse.)
If that’s the best alternative, I say we keep shoveling money at Big Tech’s waste management ideas; maybe some of them might actually pay off.
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Then don’t use them
Why don’t we take a look at how the plastics industry handled the public? Here’s Climate Town (YouTube link).
People who think companies like the Ocean Cleanup will solve the problem annoy me.
Yet another technological antisolution. I’ve posted it before but it’s just a perennial concept.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle isn’t a joke, and is in order of what should take precedence. And as for plastic recycling, https://text.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled (tl;dr it’s total bullshit. it’s expensive to do, and recycled plastic is worse and more expensive than virgin plastic. It probably cannot even handle two recycles before becoming totally worthless, that’s how crappy recycled plastic is)
The dumbest part is how we are disallowed from reusing many things. One small example out of a limitless number: Every time I buy milk I have to buy a brand new plastic container, because that is the only way I can purchase it. And it is the exact same as the old kind of plastic container. I can’t just go to the store and pour a refill and pay for that.
I don’t buy milk regularly, but where I live there are dairies that use glass bottles. You get charged a deposit for a new bottle, and get the money back when you return it to the store. The glass bottles are washed and reused; although the plastic cap & seal are disposable. Also, the milk sold this way is a little more expensive than the milk sold in plastic jugs or paper cartons.
Obviously this produces less trash than plastic disposable jugs. Whether it is more “environmentally friendly” depends also on energy consumption, though. Plastic jugs are really cheap to make, and they are lighter to ship than glass bottles and thus use less fuel in the delivery trucks. So there’s a tradeoff, and I expect the dairies have a better idea of this tradeoff than I do.
So, the author’s preferred solution apparently involves completely overhauling our society, down to the mindsets and living conditions of every single person. (Note that this would goes beyond even the usual canard of “overthrowing capitalism”; socialist countries have historically polluted just as bad, or worse.)
If that’s the best alternative, I say we keep shoveling money at Big Tech’s waste management ideas; maybe some of them might actually pay off.