• Plastic Straws Arent the Problem - Bloomberg
    15 replies, posted
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-06-07/plastic-straws-aren-t-the-problem?utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=business&utm_source=facebook&cmpid=socialflow-facebook-business
Eh, I have to agree. The issue isn't straws (or plastic waste) it's a culture of dropping rubbish on the ground. Littering is bad in Western countries, but it's endemic in third-world nations where waste disposal doesn't really exist.
Beaches in SEA are strewed with waste, and the locals largely have a 'not my problem' attitude.
The problem is it's inconsequential AND it makes people think that they're solving the issue when in reality more effective solutions need attention/backing
Of course they aren't the problem - they are a small part of a huge problem. Despite this I don't agree that you should neglect a subset of the problem just because there are bigger problems. That's faulty logic. If people are ignorant as to the relative impact of straws or anything else then the answer is educating them.
Well it's not practical to prevent littering using law enforcement. We did it and it had no visible effect. What we CAN do however is change other circumstances to lessen the impact, I.E push the use of biodegradable materials. Similar logic to progressive ideas on dealing with drug abuse.
Best way to deal with littering is place more (every couple meters) trashcans around and make sure they're emptied frequently. I keep noticing that cities that have a low amount of trashcans have a high amount of litter.
I would say that the best way to prevent littering is to change products so that they aren't designed to generate huge amounts of litter. Do we really need all of the packaging that comes with everything we order and do we really need to coat every little bit of paper with a thin layer of plastic?
logistically you might be surprised at how difficult that would be to do and maintain, not to mention the cost. especially in poorer countries.
In Japan they don't have bins anywhere. They sort their rubbish extensively, but I don't know how or where people stored it between bin days, but the streets were immaculate there.
Japan's a totally different case. Its in their culture to be clean, and bins were taken out for reasons relating to the Tokyo Sarin gas attack and rats wondering around.
Well yeah that solves the littering problem. But it doesn’t solve the overarching waste problem. It would be better to instead focus on providing recycling facilities for waste, as well as pushing for new products to be made from recycled materials as opposed to virgin inputs. But it would be best to prevent waste from being generated in the first place. Are straws, whether made from plastic or paper or metal, really necessary? Is selling fruit and vegetables wrapped in plastic really necessary? There is so much unnecessary stuff being produced, stuff which would only create minor inconvenience to daily life if they weren’t produced.
Oh absolutely, I was just saying more than an abundance of Bins won't necessarily make everyone get their act together, cultural difference or not.
Plastic waste is a major issue. We need to shift away from the current non-degradable forms and aim at the introduction of edible sticks or using ones made from mushroom/celluose based materials.
there's a park near where I live and there are like 7 trashcans around, yet people still litter. I am not saying trashcans are useless but in this case you need people to actually care about it before things work. I am not sure if its education's fault though as it's basic stuffs taught throughout every stages of schools and there's government advertisements on TV every now and then, maybe they should amp up the punishment but then enforcing it would be a problem.
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