Plastic Straws Aren’t the Problem

Re:Plastic Straws Aren’t the Problem by michelledepeil on Saturday August 25, 2018 @10:55AM (#17841015)

Surprise surprise, corporations (in this case commercial fishing) are doing major damage to the environment, and even after realizing that straws make up only 0.03% of the oceans plastic waste, the attention is still (even in this comment thread) pointed at the consumer.

The free market will not save the environment, regulatory action will.

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Re:Plastic Straws Aren’t the Problem by syntaticSugar on Saturday August 25, 2018 @01:23PM (#17841643)

Will it tho? Or rather the free market won't? Isn't a majority of the push for more environmentally safe products a result of the market demand?

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Re:Plastic Straws Aren’t the Problem by michelledepeil on Monday August 27, 2018 @02:04AM (#17849724)

Yes, you are correct that "a majority of the push for more environmentally safe products [is] a result of the market demand", but as we read in the parent article, environmentally safe products are not making a significant difference. This is a bit of an assumption, because the article only speaks of straws, and I'm extrapolating that to _all_ consumer goods. The article then goes on to highlight what _would_ make a significant difference: fishing net cleanup.

What I'm saying is that the significant mess made by commercial fishing should be cleaned up by commercial fishing - or prevented in the first place by regulating the practice.

If we look a little further down the line at consumer behaviour again, I will make the anecdotal assumption that the vast majority of consumers does not care in the least about the packaging of their products (or the number of plastic straw it comes with), as they are too busy budgeting their lives.

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