The Effects Of Plastic On The Environment

Discussion in 'Science & Nature' started by Don Alaska, Mar 17, 2018.

  1. Beatrice Taylor

    Beatrice Taylor Veteran Member
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    Not trying to be mean but I'm pretty sure that no-one in England is seeing any of my trash hanging from trees.

    My trash goes from my apartment complex in a closed truck to a garbage burning steam plant that generates and sells electricity to the local utility company.

    If I overreacted to Patsy Faye's post then I apologize to her and the other members of the SOC.

     
    #31
  2. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Or, as starters, bring your own cloth or insulated bag and refuse whatever the store uses. Many stores already have a “bring your own bag or box” policy which seems to omit part of the merchant’s overhead.
     
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  3. Neville Telen

    Neville Telen Veteran Member
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    Don't know if your paper bags are the sort with handles on them, but if they are, don't put much faith in them. I had the handles rip off twice now, the last time (and I do mean the very last time) nuking most of my carton of eggs. Also them "strong and sturdy" bags will be anything but, if you walk them through the rain to your car....especially the bottoms. Had that joy happen a couple times too. Used to that is, as I now only use strong plastic bags which I buy online, since the Nannyites outlawed them here. As for the paper bags, the little recycled symbol is suspiciously MIA on those from Safeway, Lucky, Trader Joe, etc.

    Recycling here is not doing so great, irregardless of what the liberals would have you believe:
    https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/10/why-everything-in-that-blue-bin-isnt-recycled-6/
    http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-skelton-recycling-problems-california-20180709-story.html
    And that is maybe not just happening here:
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/climate/recycling-landfills-plastic-papers.html
    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...mers-wishful-recycling-big-problem/100654976/
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium--1.6158793
    I have bothered to look into the recycling question, and it's not the miracle some profess it to be:
    https://vittana.org/21-recycling-pros-and-cons
    There is now a forced recycling law here that legally mandates the separation of garbage, forcing me to be a garbage picker. As the Queen of England might say "We are not amused!".
     
    #33
  4. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Yep - a simple solution Bobby and exactly what I do !
    Makes you wonder how shoppers managed when we didn't have all the plastic bloomin' bags !
     
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  5. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    No - I'm not amused either - besides the cruel harm that plastic does to animals, we 'can' live and get by without it !
    A bit of imagination wouldn't go astray
    The paper bags 'do' have handles and are very sturdy
     
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  6. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    Not mean ……………. just ignorant of the facts, if you live in the US, no - I won't see 'your'
    bags :rolleyes:
    I'm done with this thread so please don't quote me
     
    #36
  7. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    If that's what the stores wanted that's a good thing
     
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  8. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    Burlap went a long way.
    My wife has several cloth bags which she stores in the truck. We still have two of them that Ina gave us when she visited. They span the width of the cart and have clips which attach to each side. Instead of placing the goods in the cart, everything is put in the bags.
     
    #38
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  9. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    The bottom line here is that there is absolutely Nothing that man has made or ever will make that doesn’t impact our environment in a negative way. Whether it’s a plastic bag or a hut to live in, the material has to come from something and somewhere.

    As stewards of everything that is naturally here, it’s the job of every human being to minimize whatever the negative aspects of the endeavor might be but it’s a given that there are those who simply do not care.
    Then there are those who pretend to give a dern by diverting all the water necessary to irrigate a large portion of California’s farm land to save a bait fish whilst carrying their groceries home in a plastic bag filled with a couple of 6packs bundled with can rings that will end up on the side of the road, in land fills, in the ocean or smothering a child or an animal.

    No matter what it is, if each individual kept a true watch on what we /they do, then the need for some products would simply go away.
    You don’t like plastic straws, bring your own version.
    You don’t like styrofoam to-go plates, bring your own container.
    Same thing for plastic and paper bags or what have you. We change and it’ll eventually catch on and whatever it is just will not be cost effective enough to produce it.
    If it doesn’t, well, we will have done the right thing even if the whole world opts for something else.
     
    #39
  10. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    All but one or two of the paper bag manufacturers in the United States went out of business because the same people who are now decrying the use of plastic were promoting plastic over paper in order to save trees.
     
    #40
  11. Neville Telen

    Neville Telen Veteran Member
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    Yep, I believe one of my links mentioned something like that. Recycled paper (among other recyclables) is backed up at the storehouses, and that does not happen because it in in demand, but because supply far exceeds demand. It does not take a genius to figure out if recycled paper is not being used to make all the paper bags to replace the plastic ones, then from whence comes the raw material. Also, just because a paper bag you use bears the 'recycle symbol' (https://www.recyclenow.com/recycling-knowledge/packaging-symbols-explained), is no guarantee it came from recycled paper.
     
    #41
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  12. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    Perhaps the "recycle" symbol is placed everywhere as an encouragement?
    Frank
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Working the graveyard shift, I was sometimes tempted to load up some non-recycled paper because it ran so much smoother and made a better bag but, although non-recycled paper was cheaper, nearly every customer demanded recycled and people who knew paper could tell the difference, which is not to say that the average customer or bag-boy would.
     
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  14. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    Telling fake anything is easy; just smell it.
    Frank
     
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  15. Neville Telen

    Neville Telen Veteran Member
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    I can attest to that. I got absolutely no way to tell whether a bag or writing paper or whatever is recycled or not. I always relied on the 'recycled symbol', but as my link shows, there are lots of such symbols that mean a lot of different things.
     
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