The fact that it’s the consumer’s responsibility to sort their waste and to try and minimise its impact on the environment in the first place is completely wrong to me.
Most people in urban areas rely on stores for basic survival, and the vast majority of products we buy there come with unnecessary waste. It doesn’t make any sense to then tell these people “by the way, you’d better clean up that mess when you’re done because it’s bad for the environment”. If governments were truly concerned or willing to act, this waste wouldn’t make it into our homes in the first place.
If a company wants to sell a product, they should be held accountable for the waste that comes along with it. They should have to prove that they can reuse the waste and be incentivised to reduce it. If they can’t, they can’t operate.
Ecocide laws need to become commonplace, and the consumer should not be responsible for their waste if they haven’t got legitimate alternative options. I understand this community is more willing to do their part in this regard, but I don’t think it’ll ever be feasible to expect this from the wider population. We need to stem the flow, not just handle the mess.
We need packaging minimisation legislation that requires manufacturers to minimise packaging to an absolute minimum both in terms of sheer volume but also in terms of material complexity meaning no gluing together plastic and paper or fused metal plastic wrapping where it is not needed. And finally minimising the packaging also inadvertently means you cannot make bottles weird shapes to fool you into thinkng the bottle is bigger than it actually is, because that means unnecessary material was wasted
the EU recently passed this: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/waste-and-recycling/packaging-waste_en
Thanks for sharing! This is very cool, some great common sense in action.
Point no. 3 here makes me wonder. Is it worth making plastic for temporary items circular? In the end it will find its way into the trash. Would it be better to bite the bullet and just outlaw plastic in these situations? I guess plastic is very useful especially in regards to food safety.
100%
At a minimum, if a company wants to use a certain type of packaging for their products, they need to prove that they have the means to fully reuse it as part of their own mini circular economy. If their packaging is found at the beach, it can be placed into a bin, sorted and sent right back to them, and they’re happy to receive it.
Even better of all packing is 100% natural compostable in the first place so of it ever ends op in nature it’ll be gone before you even find it.
When I was younger and sillier, I threw a banana skin into the river above the lower Yosemite falls in order to watch it cascade into the plunge pool below. The people in the pool below shouted at me for littering. I didn’t understand because, as far as I could tell, the item was compostable.
I learned: A) The item was not native to the area B) It could attract bears C) Despite being compostable, it would take years to degrade
I agree with what you’re saying, ultimately if it can decompose it should be all good. There are other factors to take into account, however, such as cleanliness and contamination.
I agree that it’s still littering. It was also more as an “if in worst case it does end up in nature it is at least compostable” kinda thought.
What the heck do they think a banana peal is made of?! From my own experience no more than a single year and it is degraded so much it is basically dirt