
The known unknowns of plastic pollution - known
https://www.economist.com/international/2018/03/03/the-known-unknowns-of-plastic-pollution
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strogonoff
This article presents a somewhat contrarian point that plastics isn’t
necessarily as bad, and more environmental wins can be gained by focusing on
other pollution vectors.

For a more mainstream and negative view to balance it out, check out The
Guardian’s “The plastic backlash”[0] published last month. One of the points
in it I found interesting is that there was a semi-coordinated move by major
corporations to reframe the plastic waste issue so that responsibility for the
pollution is shifted from themselves onto the consumer (gets us busy worrying
about recycling plastic rather than how we end up with that much of it in the
first place).

[0] [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/13/the-
plas...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/13/the-plastic-
backlash-whats-behind-our-sudden-rage-and-will-it-make-a-difference)

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maxxxxx
"emi-coordinated move by major corporations to reframe the plastic waste issue
so that responsibility for the pollution is shifted from themselves onto the
consumer"

It's a very successful strategy. They did the same with "identity theft" where
banks deflected the blame for bad security practices.

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tonyedgecombe
The food industry did it with obesity by suggesting exercise is the solution
to being overweight. It does seem to be a successful strategy.

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nat8265639392
Something that came up in this article, is often brought up as a ‘gotcha’ in
other articles and in discussions is the whole thing about a cotton bag
needing 140 uses to be better than a plastic bag.

This has been so easy for me, but the fact it keeps coming up makes me think
it’s not for other people? I have cotton bags that I have had for 3 -4 years
that I still use a few times a week.

The first couple of weeks I would forget them. But I stuck with it and it’s
just habit that I grab them on the way to the shops or throw them in my work
bag in the morning.

Also the idea that plastic isn’t bad for the environment doesn’t make a
difference about wether I want that stuff floating around in the ocean or
ruining beaches/forests. Make producers pay for the clean up. F them.

~~~
mikeash
Is it really 140 uses, or is it that you breakeven at 140 plastic bags?

This is a significant difference because reusable bags are usually a lot
larger and a lot stronger. In my experience, one use of a reusable bag
substitutes for something like five plastic bags. That makes the breakeven
point arrive a lot faster.

~~~
olejorgenb
The cotton bags I've seen in Norway are usually about 2/3 the size of a
standard plastic bag. I usually just reuse the plastic bags - some bags are
needed for garbage so this works well.

~~~
mikeash
Interesting. In the US, the standard plastic grocery bag is really small, to
an almost idiotic degree sometimes. (A particularly large box of cereal may
not fit in one at all!) Typical reusable bags are much larger.

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beauzero
This is anecdotal but we quit getting plastic bags at our farm because we got
tired of picking them up out of the fields. There wasn't a huge amount of them
but they used to always and I mean always be out there no matter how many you
picked up. We switched to only bringing paper home and now we find maybe one a
month from roadside trash or wind.

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wffurr
[https://outline.com/SB4qRa](https://outline.com/SB4qRa)

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anm89
"This problem, is huge, getting worse every day, we have no way to contain it
and not even any good strategies going forward, but we don't have any hyper
specific evidence of extremely bad outcomes related to it and we think other
stuff is worse anyway. You shouldn't worry about it."

This is an extremely bizarre sentiment.

I usually love the economist but this article is, excuse my pun, garbage.

