Just FYI:
Single-use plastic products are used once, or for a short period of time, before being thrown away. Under the EU’s rules on single-use plastics, the EU is tackling the 10 single-use plastic items most commonly found on Europe’s beaches and is promoting sustainable alternatives. The 10 items are
Cotton bud sticks Cutlery, plates, straws and stirrers Balloons and sticks for balloons Food containers Cups for beverages Beverage containers Cigarette butts Plastic bags Packets and wrappers Wet wipes and sanitary itemshttps://commission.europa.eu/news/less-plastic-waste-means-cleaner-beaches-2024-08-14_en
So yeah, nets are bad, but straws, plastic bags, cigarettes and packages are also a problem.
Cotton bud stick???
It’s kind of crazy - those plastic Q-tips are only better if you want to totally wreck your ears and every doctor is warning against that. For every legitimate use, those paper variants work perfectly well
how can a paper a tip grease a bearing?
Why would you grease a bearing with a q-tip? Use a proper tool for that!
name a cheaper tool?
The correct tools are those small plastic containers or a cheap grease gun. You can get the grease better into the bearing with them and don’t have the risk of smearing cotton fiber in there. They are of course more expensive than a q-tip, but you can get one for unter 5€. Seriously, if you do this even a couple times a year, buy one.
(This is also a great example why environmental regulation is so tricky: It totally makes sense to prevent one of the worst polluting product to be phased out or replaced with a better solution. But then there are edge cases (how many people have even greased a bearing in their life?) where the new product might be worse, but that still is not an argument for mass pollution on our beaches or against that regulation)
But aside from donating to NGOs dedicated to cleaning up ocean litter, the average person has very little way to reduce the number of plastic nets in the water. It requires lifting fishermen out of poverty, teaching them more sustainable fishing practices, and cracking down on littering, all things that require international cooperation.
It requires lifting fishermen out of poverty
Bruh. These aren’t 1 dude in a boat with a long line. These are billion dollar corporations running fleets. And yes, we need international cooperation to bring them to heel. Like with farmers, however, make no mistake that the people doing this kind of pollution are at all ignorant or unaware of what they are doing.
the average person has very little way to reduce the number of plastic nets in the water
Besides the obvious and 100% viable option of just not eating fish.
Now I feel better about my weird dietary preferences.
I’m doing my part!
I also do not enjoy the taste of fish. High five haha
I am all for minimizing/eliminating single use plastics. But when i get served a milkshake in a plastic mug, with a plastic lid, and a plastic spoon, but a paper straw because of “save the sea”…
i just wish we used our brains more.
What if dispenser machines had a pay by volume model? You bring your own thing, they fill it, and charge you by how much you use. Would probably need something added to measure flow and set prices, but it’s not like a McDonalds built in the 70s is still using exactly the same machines they were back then.
Plastic Recycling is Largely A Myth.
The world produces an average of 430 million metric tons of plastic each year. The United States alone produces tens of millions of tons of plastic waste annually. Yet on average, only about 5 to 6 percent of plastic in the U.S. is recycled.
Basically, the vast majority of plastic either literally cannot be recycled, at all, or would be astoundingly expensive to properly seperate according to it’s different types and run through the recycling process.
… So, in most cases, it isn’t, and just ends up in a landfill or being directly dumped into nature.
Oil companies have known this for decades, and, as with other issues surrounding pollution … they’ve promoted anything that makes an individual feel guilty when they know that even if all individuals followed the suggested course of action, it would have a negligible impact.
On an unrelated notes, a huge fraction of oceanic microplastics is from car tyres. Driving is a number one source of oceanic microplastic.
Car tyres are also significant contributors to terrestial microplastics and particulate matter!
Since this is a science community, can I ask what studies directly link these microplastics to the specific adverse affects?
I see a lot of “BPA microplastics are hormone disruptors” and “microplastics found in placentas!” Etc … ok, but are they the same microplastics in these studies?
It sounds like when everyone puts scarequotes around “chemicals”…
Come on, let’s not doubt that eating car tires is unhealthy.
And bad news: electric cars, being heavier, emit more microplastics.
tbf they are only heavier because they are making them SUVs instead of coupes or sedans and trying to convince people that a 150 mile range isnt long enough for them as if they wont just plug it back in when they get home or as if they actually commute 75 miles each way. God forbid they have to wait for it to charge. Electric vehicles have the potential to be the same weight or lighter but car companies all suck.
Just stop eating fish.
No need for nets.
stop eating all animals tbh.
Checked the username, can confirm. Very annoying.
If you call that one comment “very annoying” you need to get more used to reading opinions you don’t agree with. That was the shortest, least preachy thing ever.
Are you…ok? Do you really not understand that this was a polite wink at the other person’s username?
Being a programmer isn’t an excuse for having zero concept of normal conversation.
In the same way I believe they made an incredibly unnecessary reference to being an “annoying vegan” on a comment utterly unannoying, I believe you’ve made a really stereotypical reference to my profession on something totally unrelated. Yes. I am okay. Are you?
You don’t seem ok
Actually you are desensitized to manic behaviour. they’re the one behaving like a maniac. You got triggered by a single comment so much you had to go and lookup a persons’ history. Are you intentionally looking for a fight just because there are crazy vegans out there? This person was reasonable and did suggest something that is true. We can give up eating meat. You can disagree… but sheesh? stalking their profile?
edit: noticed you are not the original commenter. I meant the person who replied to parent comment, not you.
Yeah I was wondering what the fuck you were talking about
