While this article is off base, there is a distinct lack of leadership in demonstrating effective ways to solve the problem. There is way too much plastic used for disposable packaging, from foods to toiletries to the infamous heat sealed plastic clamshells. What does an ideal zero plastic life look like? Is it even possible to conduct such a life in the modern world?

For example, yogurt. Ubiquitous. Comes in nice little plastic cups, which will, at best, end up in a landfill. Suppose there is a wide agreement in society to phase these plastic cups out:

* Do we ban yogurt?

* Do we use recyclable glass instead?

* Do we use recyclable glass, and only dispense yogurt if you bring a recyclable container for an exchange?

* Do we use recyclable glass, only dispense in exchange for a recyclable container, and standardize container shape such that the recycling actually recycles, as opposed to sending the "recycled" container to a landfill anyways?

* Do we limit the amount of yogurt containers one can buy in a given timeframe?

* Do we create a heavy tax on the container, say 10x the price of the content?

Life is short and people may get overwhelmed by too many details. Problem which compounds if there is too much choice. Almost always better to have a standard recipe to follow, than having to figure out a recipe on a case by case basis.

Glass jars are a standard size and shape, and have a 15 cent deposit, redeemable at the collection machines in the front of the store that also handles other glass and single -use plastic drink bottles.

That’s how it works in Germany, but there are plenty of yoghurts sold in non-deposit plastic, for which the seller has to pre-pay the disposal fees.

The fees are one thing, but are those plastics actually disposed? At last burned?

Ideally, there is no plastics. It is glass (it gets washed and reused). The lid is ...a metal sheet or something? Also gets reused.

That is the key idea, it is just a process towards that and in the meantime you got to reduce plastic usage somehow.

As everyone else replying has already said: option 2 is fine.

However, your option list has enough glaring omissions that it seems as much of a hit list as the article:

1. Eliminating disposable packaging is a worthy goal but reducing the harm of individual disposable packaging materials is always going to be part of the solution in the medium term, and there is PLENTY of innovation in this area. Not least in less environmentally intensive disposable yoghurt containers.

2. You keep repeating "recyclable" but never "reusable". e.g. ceramic is also used for yoghurt containers where I live, as well as glass, and it's common to see both types of familiar-looking pots reused throughout households.

3. Other commenters have mentioned larger containers (which incidentally is what I do). Reusing every reusable container might become unwieldy if you're buying a few dozen single-serves per shop but if you're consuming that much yoghurt then big containers are going to be much better in many ways.

4. I haven't seen this happen with yoghurt just yet but it's extremely common to have bulk stores with refill facilities for milk, syrups, honeys, peanut butters, dry foods & washing liquids, so I see no reason this couldn't happen for yoghurt.

Thanks. While I wrote the OP I had 'reusable standardized glass jars' as a possible end goal in mind. I'm heartened to hear this goal is feasible. The question remains on how to move the status quo from 'myriad shape plastic containers' as is common in US to 'reusable standardized glass jars' as apparently is common in Germany. This was also common in the country of my childhood due to poverty: there was a single type of yogurt period, thus standardization was trivial, plastic was rare and glass was expensive, thus reuse. In particular as recycling around here is a sad joke. People are harangued to perform the ritual separation of 'recyclable' stuff, which then the garbage company either sends thousands of miles offshore to unclear fate, or just transports it exactly to the same landfill as the regular garbage. Forget about reuse.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/21/us-plastic-r...

Option 2. Or am I missing something?

Is it more polluting to manufacture or transport glass? If it's transport, our trajectory is heading to EVs, so that would leave the cost of recycling/manufacture which seems like it would scale well and also benefit from lowering costs of green energy in the long-term.

Given how prevalent plastic is, my suspicion is that glass is more expensive than plastic. Single use glass seems like a waste, though I haven't run the numbers.

Unless we can get to reusable glass. Living in US and walking the aisles of the local supermarket, I don't see how that's possible. The glass-packaged foods come from all around the world, with each company apparently intent on having its own distinctive glass shape. As 'recyclable' material ends up in the landfill more often than not for cost reasons, it seems a monumental task to build a 'reverse distribution' path to send back glass containers thousands a miles away to their original producer for reuse.

We use tons of bottles for alcoholic beverages without issue. Most of the problems you state can be overcome with fairly simple processes. Standardisation of jar/pot sizes is one, ease of glass sorting and recycling when compared to plastic is another.

Humans are smart enough to solve this, what we're missing is policy.

And even if it ends on landfill it's not as bad as plastic as far as I'm aware.

Glass is made out of the same stuff that's already in some very common minerals. The two main risks are sharp pieces, and the potential to focus sunlight and start a fire. Otherwise, it's about as dangerous as sand.

> For example, yogurt. Ubiquitous. Comes in nice little plastic cups

Buy yogurt in 1L or 5L reusable buckets and you get rid of a huge part of the problem

I have never seen yogurt in non-plastic containers in the US. There are tiny single-serving sugary yogurts in glass cups now, but that's all we get.

That's true for a lot of products in the US. The "invisible hand" has no options.

Option two exists in Germany. It's basically the same glas shape as a glass of pickles.

Just make your own yogourt it takes like 15 min and costs a little less.

The whole thing, including heating to just under boiling?

> It also quotes the old study that people barely ever reuse their reusable bags, when I think more people are far more well-aware now

I agree, (anecdotally) every time I go to the supermarket I notice that the vast majority of people walking towards the supermarket are carrying reusable bags. This wasn't the case just a year ago when it'd be very rare to see even a single person bringing their own bags.

While I agree that is much more common and the numbers of the study have changed, I'd like to see the actual tally.

Pretty much everyone I ask (including myself) has way too many bags. I've got a full drawer of reusable bags, and it keeps growing. While I'm totally onboard with tote bags, you can't always plan when you'll be buying, so I don't see the disposable bag (maybe not plastic though) as being something that can be eliminated.

I'd bring my paper bags back to the grocery store and fill them again, they'd usually last about 3 runs to the store before falling apart.

Because of the pandemic now, though, the store doesn't want me to reuse the paper ones. But I'll resume once the pandemic is over.

City Journal is a far far right wing propaganda outlet. I thought such political stuff was out of place here.