I always find the plastic straw thing being lumped in with climate change to be really annoying. Banning plastic straws isn’t about climate change, it’s about litter and waste. The problem with them is that they were getting all over the place and fucking with ecosystems. Fighting climate change is part of environmentalism, that doesn’t mean all environmentalism goes towards fighting climate change.
Reminds me of the plastic soda rings that ended up destroying enormous amounts of sea life just by getting trapped around animals’ necks and torsos.
Now we just use cardboard to hold beers, its functionally the same price, and the only thing filling up the oceans are the aluminum cans and the paper waste.
At least aluminum degrades better than plastics, is easier recyclable, and is worth much more (all incentives to recycle). We should add 50cts. on each alu can which is returned when you return the can. Watch how fast this issue resolves itself, then.
Paper is also at least very recyclable to the point that making paper out of paper is less Energy intensive than paper from wood. Only issue is bleaching, I guess?
Banning plastic straws isn’t about climate change, it’s about litter and waste.
Climate change is also a consequence of our productivism and “waste”, by burning fossile fuels. We create too much stuff, we consume too fast that Earth can’t restore itself fast enough.
Banning plastic straws was common sense, but it’s not enough.
Also, at least in the EU, the laws have not just banned public straws but also a bunch of other single-use, non-degradable items. Plastic cutlery, qtips, and takeout food containers were banned too or severely limited. And there’ve been a lot of improvements that incentivise reusable containers over throwaway ones too.
The thing with single use containers is, that its not really existent. Its not enforced and a lot of restaurants don’t care. I’ve never seen a single reusable food container in my entire life.
Even though I think banning unnecessary plastic items is fine and can lead to sensible innovation/more reuse, the debate around it is just a misdirection. Way more microplastic is due to car tyres or.fishing nets. Those have very big industries behind them that will fight tooth and nail against any regulation.
The real crime of this meme is tying climate change to the hypocrisy of some elites. Yes, some are hypocrites who fly private jets while preaching climate change. they’re dumb. But the majority of my conservative friends use exactly this hypocrisy as evidence that climate change is a problem, and I see plenty of people here on Lemmy using it to justify not making any personal changes in their lives.
I always find the plastic straw thing being lumped in with climate change to be really annoying. Banning plastic straws isn’t about climate change, it’s about litter and waste. The problem with them is that they were getting all over the place and fucking with ecosystems. Fighting climate change is part of environmentalism, that doesn’t mean all environmentalism goes towards fighting climate change.
Reminds me of the plastic soda rings that ended up destroying enormous amounts of sea life just by getting trapped around animals’ necks and torsos.
Now we just use cardboard to hold beers, its functionally the same price, and the only thing filling up the oceans are the aluminum cans and the paper waste.
At least aluminum degrades better than plastics, is easier recyclable, and is worth much more (all incentives to recycle). We should add 50cts. on each alu can which is returned when you return the can. Watch how fast this issue resolves itself, then.
Paper is also at least very recyclable to the point that making paper out of paper is less Energy intensive than paper from wood. Only issue is bleaching, I guess?
Climate change is also a consequence of our productivism and “waste”, by burning fossile fuels. We create too much stuff, we consume too fast that Earth can’t restore itself fast enough.
Banning plastic straws was common sense, but it’s not enough.
Also, at least in the EU, the laws have not just banned public straws but also a bunch of other single-use, non-degradable items. Plastic cutlery, qtips, and takeout food containers were banned too or severely limited. And there’ve been a lot of improvements that incentivise reusable containers over throwaway ones too.
The thing with single use containers is, that its not really existent. Its not enforced and a lot of restaurants don’t care. I’ve never seen a single reusable food container in my entire life.
Even though I think banning unnecessary plastic items is fine and can lead to sensible innovation/more reuse, the debate around it is just a misdirection. Way more microplastic is due to car tyres or.fishing nets. Those have very big industries behind them that will fight tooth and nail against any regulation.
The real crime of this meme is tying climate change to the hypocrisy of some elites. Yes, some are hypocrites who fly private jets while preaching climate change. they’re dumb. But the majority of my conservative friends use exactly this hypocrisy as evidence that climate change is a problem, and I see plenty of people here on Lemmy using it to justify not making any personal changes in their lives.