Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s plastic waste

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by weberc2 on Monday June 17, 2019 @03:50PM (#20206648)

This is pretty much what the environmentalists were preaching when I was growing up. Not sure why to be honest. In retrospect it certainly seems like "but the landfills!" is the lesser of all evils.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by nostrademons on Monday June 17, 2019 @04:21PM (#20206931)

Probably a combination of NIMBYism and poor land-use planning. Back when many of these landfills were created, they were on the outskirts of urban areas, where "outskirts" = 15-20 miles away. After the wave of suburbanization in the 1950s-80s, suddenly those outskirts are right next to someone's home. Now it's a crisis.

Most people's conception of what land is available is limited to their local metropolitan area, and they have no idea just how abundant land is in the hinterlands. You could probably bury all the nation's garbage in the craters left inside the Nevada Proving Grounds, which is a radioactive wasteland anyway. And shipping contains of garbage 500 miles from LA, Vegas, and SF to Northern Nevada looks a lot more appealing when you've gotten used to shipping it 10,000 miles to China.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by whatshisface on Monday June 17, 2019 @04:58PM (#20207322)

Shipping over water is cheaper than shipping over land.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by SomeOldThrow on Monday June 17, 2019 @06:37PM (#20208040)

Only if you don’t price in environmental impact. Trains are much more efficient than ships in this regard and can be powered purely by green energy.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by nkurz on Monday June 17, 2019 @10:25PM (#20209296)

> Trains are much more efficient than ships in this regard

Is that really true? At least for CO2 emissions, other sources seem to imply the opposite, with ships being much more efficient than trains: https://truecostblog.com/2009/11/23/is-local-really-greener-...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by SomeOldThrow on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @12:41AM (#20209847)

I'm referring to an electric train powered by green energy—an ideal, not a current reality. As far as I am aware, shipping lanes are just as difficult to green as planes are, maybe even more so.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by cr1895 on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @06:49AM (#20211547)

>an ideal, not a current reality.

Dutch trains run on sustainable power.

https://www.ns.nl/en/about-ns/sustainability/energy/sustaina...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by Godel_unicode on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:03AM (#20209927)

We know how to make very large nuclear powered ships. You could fit an astonishing amount of waste on something the size of the Nimitz, especially if it didn't need to make task group speeds.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by SomeOldThrow on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @01:03AM (#20209934)

Hmm, fair point.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by jessaustin on Monday June 17, 2019 @08:08PM (#20208581)

If you live next to a harbor, sure. Lots of places in North America are not near the coast.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Asian countries take a stand against the rich world’s pla... by nostrademons on Monday June 17, 2019 @05:43PM (#20207678)

True, but probably not 20x true.

[ Parent | on HN ]