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Goodbye Balloons, Glow Sticks & a lot more...

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  1. #11

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    In this week's episode of "Unintended Consequences" . . . New Jersey's ban on single-use grocery bags. Not mentioned in the blurb below is that customers were walking out of the stores with plastic shopping baskets because they were too cheap to pay a few coins for a reusable bags!

    https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...reusable-bags/


  2. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by huja:
    In this week's episode of "Unintended Consequences" . . . New Jersey's ban on single-use grocery bags. Not mentioned in the blurb below is that customers were walking out of the stores with plastic shopping baskets because they were too cheap to pay a few coins for a reusable bags!

    https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...reusable-bags/
    If the disposable bags are banned, we can now set a minimum price, say $10, on reusable bags to prevent people from considering it as a "tax". Not super expensive but expensive enough that people don't keep buying them.

    Or better still, turn the minimum price into a levy and spend the money on environmental remediations.

  3. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by aw451:
    If the disposable bags are banned, we can now set a minimum price, say $10, on reusable bags to prevent people from considering it as a "tax". Not super expensive but expensive enough that people don't keep buying them.

    Or better still, turn the minimum price into a levy and spend the money on environmental remediations.
    Still too cheap. A reusable bag needs to be used about 20 times to be break-even in terms of environmental impact vs 20 disposable bags. At $10, most people would use it once or twice and then dispose.
    iwthyh likes this.

  4. #14

    Wet wipes made of plastic should be banned too, paper versions are available.

    aw451, rainylin, Zelensky2 and 1 others like this.

  5. #15

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    This is all fine, but to one of Shri's initial remark - what are the alternatives for pet poop pickup?

    Does not matter to me and my cats, but if I get a dog, I need to know how not to be an a-hole :-)

    p.s. yes, I know newspeper can be used for fairly solid waste, but not all dog poop is solid and dry enough to pick up that way.


  6. #16

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    Supermarkets should take the lead in reducing plastic waste. They should refuse to stock products that are over-packaged. Bulk products like rolled oats, popcorn and marshmallows do not need a plastic shell that is difficult to recycle and comes with a hard-plastic screw-on top, even if it looks like a cute bear. A plastic bag will do the job just as well.

    spode likes this.

  7. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by CWB Bay:
    Supermarkets should take the lead in reducing plastic waste. They should refuse to stock products that are over-packaged. Bulk products like rolled oats, popcorn and marshmallows do not need a plastic shell that is difficult to recycle and comes with a hard-plastic screw-on top, even if it looks like a cute bear. A plastic bag will do the job just as well.
    Agree 100%, manufacturers need to be prevented from making those things in the first place, or be forced to make them much more expensive through taxation.

    But as ever we're back to the same old problem that the local population generally don't care at all about the wider environment.

    It's very much a cultural problem, the world is there to serve their needs and little else.

    The majority of local and Mainland Chinese will actively seek out the most elaborately packaged products for gifts, because they believe all that extra packaging gives them extra 'face'.

    It's nauseating.

    It's not unique to Chinese culture of course, but the consumerism that's constantly worshiped here is much more acute than the rest of the world, save maybe places like Dubai - which are similarly superficial.

    Does anyone believe that the legislation being introduced in HK is anything more than a weak attempt at limiting the ever growing need for landfill space, rather than a conscious commitment to reduce the impact on the natural world?

  8. #18

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    Different same old problem for me.. and also why I can't find any common ground at all in climate discussions. Now it was the climate "scientists" (no such thing okay) that blamed and still blaming it on carbon so unless they want to revise their theory, the last I checked we/Earth are a carbon based lifeform and the only thing currently capable of processing and converting carbon naturally at no harm to the environment was a tree. So either you reduce human consumption and activity and/or plant more trees, what are they even talking abt then of saving the world from climate doom..

    So when the solution involves something no one is that keen on ;p, we shift the focus to something else easier to nag at..like plastic bags. Still a worthy cause cuz there's just a lot of unnecessary waste. I definitely remember a time when delivery packaging used to be less, what happened. Now the box is at least 5x bigger than item and there's bubble wrap AND styrofoam bits it's crazy. My friend ordered something for delivery to my place and this is the size: stacked on top of a standard office box pack of A4 printing paper for comparison.
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    The order was for 12 pieces of facial mask..


  9. #19

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    Quote Originally Posted by sarsi:
    The order was for 12 pieces of facial mask..
    wow! your friend has a pretty big face

  10. #20

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    First they came for the cotton swabs, but I was not a cotton swab, so said nothing....