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RE: Wanna Hear a "Plastic" Joke?
The consumers decide how the market looks, so it's really up to everyone to speak up because it's insane the way we are using up plastic. In Sweden they are also taking more and more measures. We have a system where all plastic bottles have a pawn fee . For example if a coke bottle is 1 dollar you have to pay an extra 0.2 dollar as a deposit. When you return the bottle u can get that money back . I don't know if America has the same system ?
There's usually a $0.05 deposit in certain states. Not nearly enough to deter anyone or encourage a return for the refund. If anything, homeless people collect and return a fraction of the cans/bottles for a meager income, as a plus.
Plastic bag waste is horrendous too. Companies who promote reusable bags or using your own bags/no bags do sometimes offer a small deduction on your purchase, which is a step in the right direction. At the rate pollution is destroying our oceans, I'm not sure we have 5-10 more years to work through red tape. Plastic takes forever to decompose and we all know that the global population is flooding in tons more every second.
We are certainly very short minded. When I was young I used to pick up trash and throw it in the trash bin if I saw it laying on the street. I gave up hope pretty quickly.
The problem has to be handled from the root. Government restrictions will be the only way - we are inviting smartphones and satellites that we send into space - surely we can find some better solution than the plastic bag. I guess the oil industries hope that solution will take a long time to find ...