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I don't even see this related to age, I think it might be even more related to how you grew up.
If you are used to buying lots of processed foods vs fresh foods, you'll probably generate more trash in one week than someone who buys fresh and uses plastic bags.
I think it's a bit of both age and how you grew up. I see people who grew up in urban/suburban environments before recycling was common, and they are not likely to recycle.
Because I was raise by hippies, mostly in small towns and farms, I was taught to reduce and reuse first, and recycle as a last resort. I have reusable tote bags and water bottles, rarely buying plastic bottles. I only have plastic bags because occasionally cashiers insist upon putting certain things in plastic. I think I am more conscientious about these things than most of my peers my age.
I see younger generations as more versed on the topic of single-use plastics and packaging, although IMO they need to be, since they consume far more of these things than any generation before them--the steady stream of delivery trucks arriving with containers of cheap throw-away gadgets and things. The trend toward 'free returns' when in fact nothing is free, certainly not to the environment. But the term 'single use plastic' is definitely a younger generation focus, not boomer lingo.
The last several posts decry the amount of waste we produce. I'll again offer an alternate perspective, documented in several earlier threads on the subject in this forum, but let me first qualify myself lest some Karens think I'm not being Green enough---
I'm a long-time believer in and practitioner of conservation for conservation's sake. We are homesteaders who produce at least 75% of the food we eat, and our scant table scraps get run thru our chickens first before winding up as fertilizer in the gardens. Our county scavenger service recently switched to a weekly, mechanized pick-up method with 50 gal containers, but it takes us 3-4 weeks to fill the thing up. ..We minimize our waste, BUT--
Waste and landfills are not really the problem certain people seem to think-- For decades now, they have been required to have impermeable liners, so ground water contamination is just not a problem. They are also properly ventilated, so air pollution is not a problem. ...Our country is 19Million sq miles big, and over the next century, only about 1000sq miles will be used for landfills, and they are required to have de-commissioning plans in place that will return the land to useful park, recreational and natural habitat uses, so the net sum is there are no long term environmental deficits- maybe even some benefits.
The main landfill problem is that suitable sites, particularly in the heavily populated East, are now being located farther & farther away from the population centers-- longer hauling distances. It's a logistical problem, not an environmental one...We could be killing two birds with one stone by burning the waste in clean power plants-- we get rid of the waste while generating more cheap electricity.
Penn & Teller did a humorous, if foul-mouthed expose' of the re-cycling/landfill non-problem a few years ago, tracing the whole concept of a problem back to a self-serving comment by a Nixon Admin official....(I can't get the link to work here-- it's season 2 episode 5 Penn & Teller Bull****--use your imagination to fill in the *'s the censor here inserts. It's on YouTube)
Last edited by guidoLaMoto; 09-05-2022 at 10:26 AM..
The problem is that we all have normalized single use plastics. We are ALL addicted to plastic... be it old folks or young'uns.
I think everyone should watch a current documentary about the plastics pollution in our oceans and seas. And when you see the enormity of the problem (and it just gets worse every year), you either get it... or you don't (care).
Cities in Canada are currently passing bylaws banning the common plastic shopping bags. You won't even be able to buy them for $.05. This will **** a lot of ppl off... but guess what? Eventually it will become normal to carry reusable bags with you.
I think well made cotton reusable and easily laundered bags should work for a lot of ppl. It would be similar to doing a wash of clothes.
We all have to start somewhere. A journey of a million steps starts with the 1st one. Change our culture to one of conservation instead of entitlement.
But it's not just the amount of energy required to haul that waste to far-flung waste centers, guido It's also the amount of resources required to replace things that are discarded after a single use when they could easily be re-used repeatedly.
The problem is that we all have normalized single use plastics. We are ALL addicted to plastic... be it old folks or young'uns.
I think everyone should watch a current documentary about the plastics pollution in our oceans and seas. And when you see the enormity of the problem (and it just gets worse every year), you either get it... or you don't (care).
Cities in Canada are currently passing bylaws banning the common plastic shopping bags. You won't even be able to buy them for $.05. This will **** a lot of ppl off... but guess what? Eventually it will become normal to carry reusable bags with you.
I think well made cotton reusable and easily laundered bags should work for a lot of ppl. It would be similar to doing a wash of clothes.
We all have to start somewhere. A journey of a million steps starts with the 1st one. Change our culture to one of conservation instead of entitlement.
Plastic in the oceans-- has been traced -- 90% (!!) comes from just 5 rivers in east Africa & SE Asia where just a couple of under-developed nations dump there trash directly into the rivers....Most of the rest came from the SE Asia when companies who were being paid to accept our plastic for re-cycling found the market for the second rate re-cycled stuff wasn't there and just started unloading the excess in the oceans.
As I've pointed out here before, plastic is made from small organic molecules left over from petroleum processing. It would be waste immediately, except now it's first diverted temporarily into useful products that are more affordable to more people, improving the standard of living. See below...
Quote:
Originally Posted by kj1065
But it's not just the amount of energy required to haul that waste to far-flung waste centers, guido It's also the amount of resources required to replace things that are discarded after a single use when they could easily be re-used repeatedly.
But you gotta look at the bigger picture--consumerism & planned obsolescence provides more jobs for more people....Production of food is no longer a factor in determining the carrying capacity for humans. Now it's the ability to buy food, etc....It's nice to fantasize and romanticize about a world with only 2 Billion people, but the reality is there are 8 Billion of us now and not enough govt handouts to keep everybody healthy and happy.
None of these proposed solutions take into account our aging population, with various medical problems that preclude them from lifting boxes full of groceries (unless you're proposing to put only 5 small items in each box) or digging holes for composting. Every solution that I've seen in the past 10 years to deal with trash disposal or recycling has made the lives of the elderly and disabled more difficult.
And switching to paper bags isn't a great solution either. It requires cutting our forests, and despite being recyclable, many of those bags never actually get recycled, and recycling itself is wasteful and costly. Ditto for cardboard boxes.
Training supermarket checkout employees not to waste bags while bagging would reduce plastic bag usage by at least 10-20%. Why do a can of tomatoes and a bottle of shampoo have to go in separate bags just because one is food and the other isn't? Why does a carton of eggs have to go in a bag all by itself? It's because "my supervisor/store manager/corporate says we have to do it this way." Arbitrary and wasteful rules.
None if the stores I shop at do any of this. I walk to the store, buy bread, tomatoes eggs and some non foid item and it al goes into the one bag I brought with me. Or when we do a biggef shopping they fill the bags based in protecpcting the items such as not putting bread or eggs under a buch of canned goods.
Been using reuseabke bags for thirty years and never had problems. Some of our bags may also be that old.
I've always wondered why we don't have a solution for the sewn recyclable bags you buy at checkout counters so we aren't creating even more waste. One way that I think we could do that is to recycle our outdated clothes into bags. A lot of perfectly good, but outdated clothing gets given to thrift stores. My understanding is that it is either resold or is passed further and further down a chain until it ends up as waste dumped somewhere. How much effort would it be to create a machine where you could lay out a shirt or a pair of jeans, etc. The machine would cut the old garment into predetermined pattern pieces and then those pieces would be resewn into appropriate reusable bags. There may be one person who needs to man it depending on the capabilities of the machine or in case of breakdown. You as a consumer would use these bags until you needed new ones.
The plastic like sewn bags that you buy at checkout counters have always bothered me. Sure, you get more than one use out of them, but they are still limited use and often don't last very long. I think a bag properly sewn out of certain fabrics would have a longer lifespan and would give longer life to a material that is destined for the waste heap.
Excellent point. There's also a concern about the cleanliness of those corrugated boxes which have been in warehouses and sometimes cargo ships and can become homes for all types of critters and their waste. I wouldn't want to bring that into my house.
Really? All the food or goods you're bringing into your house was contained in those boxes. The people stocking the shelves weren't wiping down the products or washing their hands in between boxes. So what difference does it make?
I've always wondered why we don't have a solution for the sewn recyclable bags you buy at checkout counters so we aren't creating even more waste. One way that I think we could do that is to recycle our outdated clothes into bags. A lot of perfectly good, but outdated clothing gets given to thrift stores. My understanding is that it is either resold or is passed further and further down a chain until it ends up as waste dumped somewhere. How much effort would it be to create a machine where you could lay out a shirt or a pair of jeans, etc. The machine would cut the old garment into predetermined pattern pieces and then those pieces would be resewn into appropriate reusable bags. There may be one person who needs to man it depending on the capabilities of the machine or in case of breakdown. You as a consumer would use these bags until you needed new ones.
As I understand it clothes that aren't purchased at thrift stores end up being sold in bulk. They either get turned into rags for industrial use or sold overseas in developing nations.
You can make larger re-usable shopping bags from those heavier plastic dog/ cat/ chicken/ horse feed bags--- cut a ring off around the open top & fold it for the handles, then fold the next inch or two around the top and sew it (for strength) and sew the handles on either side...You can get fancy and cut/fold & sew the bottom for squaring the floor, but it's not really necessary. ...You can make the bags as deep as you like, depending on how heavy you want the load and how long your arms are.
Or buy sturdy one from Ikea for 89 cents - not everyone has a horse!
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