Dominican Republic

[Art Blade]

 

[BinnZ]

99% of humanity is either too stupid or too poor to use plastic responsibly so the only solution I see is to ban it entirely.

[mandru]

An interesting concept Binn but off the top of my head I'm sure there are a lot of people waiting for plastic heart valves or other body replacement parts that would be sorely disappointed with that development.

What other vital machinery/conveniences that we have become dependent on to get through our day to day modern lives would we no longer have access to with that course of action?

Considering just one aspect surrounding the loss of plastic that stands out for me is I think that without plastic's ability to be used as insulation for containing electric currents it wouldn't be very long before the total collapse of civilization and we'd all be (those who survived the resulting crash/panic) knocked back into the pre-dark ages cooking our meals over dried cattle dung. 

I don't think there's enough caves or bear furs (for loin cloths) to go around for all of us.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah plastic is too ingrained in our civilization to stop using it completely. But for stupid stuff like packaging when there's plenty of other choices available? Sure, they might not be as cheap or convenient, but there is a point when a choice has to be made to balance it's use against it's impact.

But again, it's the people that are the problem. If recycling or reusing was followed by more people, we'd not have the mess we find ourselves in. Or heck, even just disposing of it properly instead of tossing it in the river to be carried to the ocean.

I try to buy stuff that's not packaged in plastic, but it's almost impossible, especially when it comes to food. I have glass jars that I used to buy fruit juice in, now probably 10-20 years old that I'm still using for other things. It's almost impossible to find anything packaged in glass anymore, I'd like to find some new jars to replace the ones that have broken or just have lids that no longer close tightly, but nothing comes in glass anymore.

[BinnZ]

Really? Wow that's extreme. In Holland you can still find loads of glass jars, pots and all that.

About plastic necessity; I'm pretty sure we already have access to similar materials that can be dissolved by nature and yet have the necessary qualities to replace plastics. Probably a lot more expensive but hey; everything has its price.

[PZ]

I totally agree about the packaging being one of the biggest problems. Bottles, grocery bags, and even the giant theft-proof packages that a flash drive comes in. I also think we will never get rid of plastics entirely for the reasons already mentioned. Can you imagine a car without using plastics? The engines alone contain dozens of pieces.  We'd be thrown back into the early age of the automobile where gas mileage was abysmal, and wood was used instead of plastic.

Interesting thing about recycling - our community makes it difficult to do so - recycle containers that are far and few between, others that accept only a single kind of recyclable, even though we see a few that you can throw any plastic, metal, or glass into.  Some stores have glass recycle machines outside the front door. I tried using one a couple of days ago and while it would take beer bottles, it would not take wine nor Scotch bottles. I'll bet that the 7 beer bottles the machine took did not contain as much glass as a single one of the thick walled wine bottles.  Even more ironic is that there is a trash can for the things that the machine won't take (which is just about everything except beer bottles.

Sure does not make one feel like they are doing much for the recycling effort.

[Art Blade]

here we've got lots of metal containers for glass recycling placed conveniently where the radius for people to use them is good enough to fill them to the brim within a week. I said lots because we separate white, green and brown glass so they always come in a trio. Garbage needs to be separated, too: paper & cardboard, packaging (metal, foil, plastic) and organic waste. So far, so good.

But the problem is, the companies who do the recycling are not always capable of doing their job properly so either the whole lot gets burned to ashes or shipped to "shithole countries" and yeah, let them drown in our garbage.

[BinnZ]

agreed, we can't do without plastics. But the use should be extremely limited. And we should seriously invest in developing environment friendly alternatives. We don't need material that lasts longer than a couple of years, we throw everything away within such short period anyway.
In Holland we have the same recycling procedures as Art described. The biggest container I have in my garden is the one for plastics. When I first got introduced to separating plastics, I got so confused... they described what types of plastics I was allowed to throw in there, and what not. And how to recognize the right plastics from the wrong ones. That's were I said go f*** yourselves, I will just put everything in it that's plastic to me. I take my job seriously; the tiniest little plastic parts all go into that massive container. It's the collectors job to recycle it or burn it or whatever. They can't expect me to become a plastics expert: I haven't asked for all the damn stuff in the first place.

Plastic packaging should become a crime. There's always alternatives. It's just our collective greed and laziness that keeps us using it. I'm currently in Peru, a land that on many sides isn't as developed as my country. If you look at how people treat their land there, how they just consider it a big waste disposal site and how awfully big the amount of plastic packaging there, you'd loose all faith in a cleaner world.

Just on a side note; recently studies have discovered an enzyme (or bacteria) that is able to eat plastic, and change it into easier dissolvable material. The amount in which it is being eaten is so small though, that usage on a large scale, as in using it to solve our waste problems, is far beyond reach.
However, imagine this enzyme is developing itself into a plastic eating species, wouldn't that change the world?
We won't be able to rely on our plastics anymore and there will be a shocking change in ecosystems all over the world.

I think it will take a while before that is going to happen. Until then we will have to deal with our plastic soups 😜

[PZ]

Here any recyclable plastic is stamped with the recycle logo, which is somewhere on the item. However, it can by tiny, in an inconspicuous place, or otherwise not so easily noticeable. It is a shame that the plastics manufacturers make it difficult for the people to discern what can be recycled and what can not.

It seems that recycling is just like everything else we have in our lives - make it as difficult as possible to achieve something good.

[Art Blade]

we too have that logo. But try to find it on a plastic "jewel case" for a CD or DVD or BR. 100% plastic, so I bet you can recycle those. Perhaps not the disc itself thanks to metals in the centre layer but the case, definitely. And there are lots of those types of packaging that are not stamped.

Oh, I just read this: the Germans toss away an impressive 2.8 BILLION one-way coffee cups a year, those "coffee to go" cups. That's 320,000 cups every hour. They all come with a plastic lid. The cup itself that looks like made of cardboard/paper, isn't. There's usually a plastic coating on the inside so the coffee doesn't seep through. Although the lids are made of recyclable polystyrene, they're usually burned, not recycled. And the cups, thanks to that plastic layer, can't be recycled, they have to be burned.

And since the consumers usually don't know, they put them either into the paper/cardboard recycling bin or if they know, in the plastic bin, but either way it doesn't w0#k. Maybe that's why most of 'em end up in the bushes, behind a tree or just somewhere in the road. Well, those bloody cups can't be recycled, anyway. So all in all, those 2,8 billion cups and lids end up on a 40,000 ton garbage pile without being reused.

Unless they end up as a beach decoration just a few miles down the river on the shores of the Dom Rep. What goes around, comes around..

[mandru]

This may be a baby step but at least it's in the right direction.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KppS7LRbybw

I think that this containment substance could also line the interior of the carton further reducing plastic waste.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Interesting but not very practical. Looks like you'd need 6 or so to equal the volume of the average water bottle, so how do you carry around 6 of those squishy orbs? In a plastic bottle, of course.

[Art Blade]

 

[mandru]

D_B I did say "line the interior of the carton" trying to think outside of the bottle.  I think if some thought went into alternate containment arrangements there are many other Earth friendly solutions that are possible.

An easily recycled or biodegradable paper carton lined with this material (to prevent premature leakage) in a juice box sized format (skipping the balls completely) for a quick slam of hydrating wetness was the first thing that came to mind for me.  But I'm sure there are better and more suitable designs that could be developed to bring to market a new standard for purchasing a plastic free beverage.

[Dweller_Benthos]

oh sure, I was mostly joking. It's a first iteration, it looks cool, but isn't very practical, that will come later if it proves to be viable.