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Two problems with your post: 1] While we could make bags and straws out of paper, eliminating some of the toxic side products of making plastic, there are toxic side products in making paper too.Even Steven on that swap. At least trees are renewable. I'll give you that.
2] Plastics themselves are generally inert. If you eat them, they'll pass right thru unchanged/unabsorbed. ..One caveat-- do you know the joke about the monkey and the cue ball?
Trees are renewable, but they take time to grow. I was just reading about France's plans for rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral. When it was built, it was built 100% with trees from France. France can not today rebuild that roof with French trees. No where in France today are there any trees big enough to rebuild it. We are deforesting this planet, yet people are more worried about the effects of plastic.
And if you don't understand the importance of trees, you should read up on it. Without trees, we might as well be living on the Moon, or Mars. Because the chances of survival would be about the same.
^^^American forestry started seeing the error of its ways a century ago; we now have more board feet of lumber available than at any other time in history thanks to enlightened forest management.( I concede, I chose those words carefully.) Trees are a crop that take 40 yrs from seed to harvest, but it's like a flowing river: harvest one, plant two; endless supply.
New England lumberjacks invaded WI in the 1840s and were cutting down white pines 20 ft in diameter (!). Now you'd have to search awhile to find one 4 ft thick. But it's still a forest biome.
I, too, prefer the forest, but the natural prairie is actually a more biodiverse biome-- awful lot of shade on the forest floor.
In regards deforestation: Europe devastated their forests many centuries ago for fuel-- another advantage of fossil fuel-- it allowed us to spare the remaining woods.
Short answer: NO. Not sure it's possible in an urban environment.
Probably doable if you go off grid and live as they did in say the 1920's, in the hills.. Plastic is in so many things we buy, from packaging to optical lenses to cars and TV's. Only way I can see to go really plastic free is to not buy anything which contains plastic.
I do what I can; I bought my own shopping trolley. It can negotiate stairs. That means I don't use plastic bagging, at all..Use free community newspaper and junk mail to warp garbage as much as possible instead of using plastic garbage bags.
I recycle what I can. However, I simply don't believe everything I separate for recycling gets recycled.
The problem may solve itself as we continue to run out of oil, and plastic becomes expensive. We may return to using natural fibres to replace some plastics.
The problem may solve itself as we continue to run out of oil, and plastic becomes expensive. We may return to using natural fibres to replace some plastics.
Charlie, you're late to the party here and no doubt haven't read all the posts on this thread. --Can't blame you. Let me summarize:
Plastics are made from either natural gas or naptha from petroleum. If those aren't used to make plastic, then they'd be waste products themselves. Cf- the history of gasoline as fuel. It was dumped as waste in the distillation process of crude oil until the carburetor was invented. Prior to that, all engines were Diesel....So, whether you make plastic or not is immaterial-- the raw products will still be made anyway. You may as well use them for something useful before they wind up in the dump.
Plastics are lighter weight than the materials they replace, so shipping costs are lower and you save fuel-- important if you worry about carbon footprint.
Plastics are cheaper than the materials they replace, so cost of goods is lower, allowing more people to buy things-- thus improving standard of living.
If people are buying more goods, then more jobs are created to supply those goods. So plastics improve the economy in general and again are responsible for increased personal income and standard of living.
Plastics allow the production of many things that couldn't exist without them. How many people would buy a 5lb "portable" iPhone made out of wood? Another boost to the economy and standard of living.
Keep things in perspective: plastic bags and straws account for an extremely small portion of the things made out of plastic. Giving up those is like giving up pickled cumquats for Lent.
Exactly. I don't get this whole hate on plastic thing. It sounds like a marketing campaign to sell people wood and metal products. Plastic is totally recyclable, and it doesn't require cutting down endless trees. It's very environmentally friendly. It's a great product, and there is no way it's going to be replaced anytime soon. But I guess being anti-plastic makes people feel good about not recycling.
Paper companies aren’t cutting down native forests to make paper, those days are long gone. They grow trees as a crop, and they are usually harvested at a very young age, and then new seedlings are planted again. If the land wasn’t used to grow trees for paper, it would be farmed for some other crop like cotton or soybeans. I always laugh at the ‘save a tree’ by using less paper argument, it doesn’t work that way.
Paper companies aren’t cutting down native forests to make paper, those days are long gone. They grow trees as a crop, and they are usually harvested at a very young age, and then new seedlings are planted again. If the land wasn’t used to grow trees for paper, it would be farmed for some other crop like cotton or soybeans. I always laugh at the ‘save a tree’ by using less paper argument, it doesn’t work that way.
Yeah, that pretty much describes every tree here in Oregon, except those in the National Forests and Parks, which is a small amount of the trees. No, the land here would not be used for other crops like cotton or soybeans. You can't grow cotton or soybeans on the sides of mountains. If the trees weren't harvested, we would have old growth forests, like existed for millions of years. We also wouldn't have as many forest fires, and global warming would not be an issue. There is a lot bigger problems facing this planet then plastic.
I used to live plastic free until back in the 70s they said it's good for the environment because it's recyclable and they switched everything over to plastic for our good.
I try to minimize adding plastics to the trash where possible. For example, I use BPA-free Nalgene bottles for drinking filtered water, rather than drinking bottled water.
I can make plastic forks and spoons last for two weeks or so, before they break. I once was able to buy a brand that had reinforced handles, that would last for several months. After they are no longer usable, I burn them, along with the plastic and paper trash I pick up on the streets.
You incinerate plastics, instead of using regular flatware?
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