Re:The global threat from plastic pollution
by goblin89 on Saturday July 10, 2021 @04:15PM
(#27796126)
Among the uses of plastic, external packaging and disposable utensils have the benefit of at least being obvious. Not so with insides of aluminium cans, paper cups, receipts (I bet this one is even BPA still), cigarette filters, and so on. These mass uses of plastic are insidious in that they are generally entirely invisible to consumers, do not affect any corporate or political brand, and hence attract no attention.
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One use that goes unnoticed is synthetic fabrics. Your polyesters, nylons, rayons, spandexes are all based on plastic.
You can actively see the micro-plastics being created: every time you wash and dry your clothes, plastic fibers are being shed from these clothes and ending up in waste water channels and landfills.
Re:The global threat from plastic pollution
by goblin89 on Sunday July 11, 2021 @12:17PM
(#27802086)
True to a degree. Still, I typically see tags listing fabric composition of clothing and am able to choose to wear e.g. near 100% cotton or wool. Also, at least a fabric is normally in use by the final consumer/wearer for some time.
The uses I listed are, sadly, completely hidden and are all in disposables.
Personally, I would not be opposed to a regulation that would mandate big red warning labels with plastic content breakdown on at least all of such disposable goods and accompanying paraphernalia that are not entirely void of plastic; or indeed a hefty “plastic tax”.