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The basic problem is that most trash does not end up in a landfill. If it did, there would not be several gyrii of plastic floating in the oceans.
Not to mention the mounds of trash all over the ground -- in cities, rural areas, national parks, where ever humans set foot.
Like all the crap I cleaned out of Arbor Hills Nature Preserve (Plano, TX) several years ago. After six weeks of picking up trash 3-4 hours every week, I quit, overwhelmed. I made a dent, but maybe only got 10-15% of the trash. And Plano has an excellent recycling program, to go along with trash collection, and the city makes an effort to educate people in "green habits."
BTW, I would like to propose that your urban planners buy the land around where ever you live -- I think it would be a great place for a landfill. Since trash disposed in landfill is sufficient, I can't see you having any objections to living next to a landfill.
Very little trash around here ends up in the environment compared to landfills. I'm not sure where the stuff in the oceans originates but is seems likely that is large scale illegal dumping. You minding the disposal of personal styrofoam may make you feel better about yourself but it does very little tangible good. It would be beneficial IMO to perform some forensic analysis of the ocean trash to understand its origin.
It would be beneficial IMO to perform some forensic analysis of the ocean trash to understand its origin.
They've already more or less done that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_debris It says that 80% of the oceanic garbage pollution escapes from land based land fills. Keep in mind that half the world's population lives within 50 miles of an ocean shore. The other 20% is dumped inadvertently or purposely by ships. (-can't find the reference right now, but I read a good deal of that dumped on purpose comes from American shipments of plastic meant for recycling in Asia and they can't handle it all.)
An interesting quote from that article: More than 37 million pieces of plastic debris have accumulated on Henderson Island, a remote Pitcairn island in the South Pacific, reported to be the highest density of debris reported anywhere in the world, yet the trash accounts for only 1.98 seconds’ worth of the annual global production of plastic.[SIZE=2][36][/SIZE]
As big as the problem is, it really only represents a minute part of the plastic produced. Two seconds of production is about one fifteen millionth of a year's production. How do you improve on that?
That also puts the "ban on plastic straws" into better perspective. It's utterly meaningless from the mathematical standpoint.
An 85 year old lady my ex and I visited quite often before she died kept the plastic wrap that was wrapped around the meat at the grocery and wash it like she does her dishes. She then stuck it to the edge of a shelf in her pantry to dry. Every time she ate dinner with us, or ate at a church potluck, before we finished eating dessert, she had half the leftovers wrapped in that plastic and stuck in her purse. Once she got home she'd put the food in the cheap containers you buy at Walmart or Dollar General that work just as good as Tupperware or other brands, wash the plastic wrap and dry it out for the next dinner.
Prior to plastics and styrofoam, businesses used a rigid paper type container with a natural wax liner. Most fast food restaurants didn’t offer a plastic nor styrofoam drink container. Their cold drinks came in a wax lined paper cup. Coffee also came in a paper cup, sometimes with cold out paper handles built into the side of the cup. This was before the age of drive thru and eat on the run. Many times we didn’t even bother with the straw. We just drank out the cup like a glass. Restaurants above fast food didn’t have paper nor styrofoam drinking cups. All drinks were served in washable reusable containers. Most restaurants of that era didn’t have to go containers because the restaurants didn’t serve such massive portion sizes. We paid for quality, not quantity.
Congratulations on reducing your waste, and thanks for sharing your sources and experiences.
A friend has been bringing her own storage containers for takeout for more than twenty years. It's like a step up from bringing your own grocery totes.
I hate Styrofoam clamshell containers not just for the waste, but because they are flimsy and shallow, so they break and leak. Who designed these useless things?
Many times we didn’t even bother with the straw. We just drank out the cup like a glass. .
But we're so much more civilized and sophisticated now, you barbarian. That was before toxic masculinity became an official diagnosis.... I wonder when I can start collecting disability payments for it?
You're going to bring a reusable container to an eating establishment--the way shoppers bring their reusable bags to grrocery stores? You know...the bags shown to have more bacteria than the bottom of women's purses and right behind cell phones. (And if peope tell you they're laundering those things, they're lying.)
Bacteria laden bags endanger only the users and their families. Reusable food containers, which may or may not have been washed, can endanger everyone whose food was contaminated by serving utensils or hands, which touch the container, then proceed to contaminate the food being sold, counters, etc. Under the best of circumstances, it's risky. Under the worst, I can see slobs tossing those things in their cars, then "wiping them down" before going into the store.
Thankfully, that idea will never make it past the Health Department's rigorous (for a reason) scrutiny.
The basic problem is that most trash does not end up in a landfill. If it did, there would not be several gyrii of plastic floating in the oceans.
Not to mention the mounds of trash all over the ground -- in cities, rural areas, national parks, where ever humans set foot.
Like all the crap I cleaned out of Arbor Hills Nature Preserve (Plano, TX) several years ago. After six weeks of picking up trash 3-4 hours every week, I quit, overwhelmed. I made a dent, but maybe only got 10-15% of the trash. And Plano has an excellent recycling program, to go along with trash collection, and the city makes an effort to educate people in "green habits."
BTW, I would like to propose that your urban planners buy the land around where ever you live -- I think it would be a great place for a landfill. Since trash disposed in landfill is sufficient, I can't see you having any objections to living next to a landfill.
Sounds like you have lived in some filthy places with so much trash. That's very sad but obviously it's not even close to the truth that most trash doesn't end up in landfills.
We actually do have a landfill a couple of miles from our neighborhood, are you saying there aren't any close to you? Is that why your neighbors throw their trash all over the ground, so strange. And I hike in our national parks all the time and never see any litter, and I mean never. Maybe people in the south have more respect for nature than where you are?
You're going to bring a reusable container to an eating establishment--the way shoppers bring their reusable bags to grrocery stores? You know...the bags shown to have more bacteria than the bottom of women's purses and right behind cell phones. (And if peope tell you they're laundering those things, they're lying.)
Bacteria laden bags endanger only the users and their families. Reusable food containers, which may or may not have been washed, can endanger everyone whose food was contaminated by serving utensils or hands, which touch the container, then proceed to contaminate the food being sold, counters, etc. Under the best of circumstances, it's risky. Under the worst, I can see slobs tossing those things in their cars, then "wiping them down" before going into the store.
Thankfully, that idea will never make it past the Health Department's rigorous (for a reason) scrutiny.
Let's distinguish food containers from reusable grocery bags, though I don't think either is a worrisome carrier of bacteria infection.
Millions of Americans use reusable bags without raising alarm about issues of sanitation. Comparing reusing bags to women's purses or cellphones are false (and irrelevant) comparisons. Cellphones are carried everywhere in the hand, and women's purses are used everyday. My reusable food container is used once a week, and I wash it. Reusable grocery bags aren't carried everywhere, everyday.
Bacterial infections of food are primarily caused by food manufacturing processes, and secondarily by improper unsanitary environments or handling. I can't think of a preponderance of news stories about grocery shoppers being infected by reusable shopping bags.
Bacteria are always all over human skin. 98% of bacteria are nonpathogenic -- meaning NOT disease causing, despite the fear-mongering of certain TV reports.
Last edited by townshend; 08-26-2018 at 10:45 AM..
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You're going to bring a reusable container to an eating establishment--the way shoppers bring their reusable bags to grrocery stores? You know...the bags shown to have more bacteria than the bottom of women's purses and right behind cell phones.
(And if peope tell you they're laundering those things, they're lying.)
