The campaign against plastic is harming the planet and the public

Re:The campaign against plastic is harming the planet and th... by rumblestrut on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @12:52AM (#24624249)

I cleaned up trash last week for a work project.

The number of plastic bags, bottles, and cups I picked up out of a nature area was amazing. Plastic bags were by far the worst. There was plastic bags in waterways, plastic bags in ditches, plastic bags in trees, just plastic everywhere.

I'd love to know if the person who wrote this article has any financial ties to the oil/plastic industry.

Side note: While I picked up litter, I thought about how I once saw disposable utensils in a grocery store that were mostly made from corn. They were biodegradable, but certainly more expensive. We (in the U.S.) already subsidize quite a bit to corn growers. Why can't we make more biodegradable plastics?

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Re:The campaign against plastic is harming the planet and th... by 2muchcoffeeman on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @03:22AM (#24624999)

PLA (the corn plastic) is not really that biodegradable. You need an industrial sized compost heap to get it to break down. Otherwise it’s going to be hanging around a long time just like everything else.

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Re:The campaign against plastic is harming the planet and th... by hsolatges on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @09:36AM (#24627629)

That is a really bad argument. Bio-plastic will definitely be degraded in decades, hundreds or thousands years while we are still wondering if it will ever happen to petrol based plastic (while it goes up in the clouds).

Time scale is clearly an issue with your statement (that is repeated over and over).

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Re:The campaign against plastic is harming the planet and th... by 2muchcoffeeman on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @06:06PM (#24633588)

I wasn’t really arguing anything.

If I was, it would be, don’t rely on supposedly biodegradable plastic. Do they really do anything in a biologically inert environment?

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Re:The campaign against plastic is harming the planet and th... by hexbinencoded on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @04:10AM (#24625234)

There are a number of "biodegradable" plastics that are scams.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2013/10/ftc-c...

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Re:The campaign against plastic is harming the planet and th... by totetsu on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @04:57AM (#24625429)

I started photographing it all, as if it would change something.. https://imgur.com/a/5P5f3WC

It's so sad that the people who are growing up with this don't know its not normal, .. for the sea spray to be partially polystyrene,.. for the sand to be stratified with nets,

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Re:The campaign against plastic is harming the planet and th... by tchock23 on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @03:34AM (#24625060)

They cited the Reason Foundation as a source for one ‘fact,’ so that should give the reader a hint as to their leanings.

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