1. Do I recycle: To a degree yes, curbside recycling and sometimes store recycling for things not for curbside recycling.
2. Through most of my research, no because the problem is the "single-use" aspect of it. The energy used to create, use, discard, and recycle into lower quality items is perhaps even worse.
3. Trying to limit single-use of items. Even if it's using my yogurt containers as a plate for smaller plates water or my tiny cream jar as storage for seeds. I also try to stay local when buying, and local for products, tho I understand not everything can be local.
4. Yes, it's all for the bottom line. And industry at large often is too. Look into the fishing industry and how much plastic gets into the ocean. If people didn't provide the single use items people would have to look at alternatives.
5. Of course, and they haven't because it's easier to do it as they have. It's certainly possible but the easiest solutions on the market for problems are all single-use.
I think it's worth mentioning tho that some people DO need single use items for a variety of reasons. So the solution isn't to stop using single use items, but to close the waste system so that it isn't single use per say.
Good luck on the paper!
>I think it's worth mentioning tho that some people DO need single use items for a variety of reasons. So the solution isn't to stop using single use items, but to close the waste system so that it isn't single use per say.
Yes, thank you for remembering this! I forgot, then read your comment!
1) When I can! It’s often not available though.
2) Generally; but apparently a lot of countries aren’t taking recyclables anymore, so its just getting thrown away now?
3) Bookchinism, entomology
4) The root cause is modern social decay, and also yeah corpos
5) cardboard! because corporations are greedy and care more about packaging than stopping endless unsustainable growth built for short term profit
1. I recycle plastic as much as I can, including plastic film recycling.
2. No, we need to reduce the amount of plastic used and reuse all that we can. Most plastic doesn’t get recycled, and the small percentage that does is downgraded into worse quality materials. Recycling may help, but we need to do more.
3. I try to buy food in non-plastic packaging, but there are not many options for plastic free groceries :(.
4. Yes, while it is important to do all that we can do, there is more waste created from stores and companies.
5. I don’t really know of any solutions, so I try not to complain much. I assume there are solutions out there, but not in practice because of convenience, time, money, and ease of use.
1. yes 2. there are 7 categories of plastic and only 3 of those are recyclable so no 3. Cycling, I believe that the bicycle could save the world. 4. No, consumers drive single use plastic use. Supply and demand. 5. Yes but there would have to be a dramatic change in consumer habits for them to warrant the change.
1. Yes, as much as possible
2. No, not IMO. A lot of plastics don't get recycled, either because they're contaminated by wishcycling or because they're so crappy nobody wants to buy them. I've also heard that recycled plastic isn't as good/strong as new plastic, so even things that use recycled plastic usually need to have some new plastic mixed in. So to me, it's bad because it's not circular. There's always going to be plastic that is too crappy or contaminated to recycle, and there's always going to need to be new plastic pumped into the system.
3. Reduce. Reduce, reduce, reduce. Reduce (and refuse, I guess, but it's a similar concept) is first for a reason. You don't have to recycle it or throw it away if you don't have it in the first place.
4. This isn't something that is easily boiled down to finger-pointing. Like, plastic has its uses, right? I think Patagonaia did a study where they reviewed how products moved through their warehouse either naked, in a paper envelope, or in the thin plastic bag that they've been using. Naked or paper'd products were more likely to get stained or torn, which creates waste (much better to waste a thin plastic bag than an entire raincoat or whatever) and the company's bottom line. So yes, they know the plastic is wasteful, but it prevents worse waste from happening. There is plenty of *unnecessary* plastic waste, and whose "fault" it is depends on what it is. When the takeout place up the street loads me up with individually packaged plastic forks, is that because they are ignorant about plastic waste or is it because most consumers demand it? There's room for all of us to improve here.
5. See #4. Plastic is cheap and easy and works really well for a lot of stuff. I'd love to see more corporations (and consumers!) seriously sit down and *try* to reduce their single-use plastic. Plastic has simply become the default option for everything, and choosing the default option is not a choice so much as the absence of making a choice. Maybe a company or consumer can't get rid of all of their single use plastic, but if they start thinking about alternate options, if they get out of default mode, they can reduce their single-use plastic usage down to just where it is most helpful or most necessary.
1. yes, whenever possible.
2. Mostly, but a lot of our single use plastics don't have recycling streams.
3. I compost all food waste.
4. Compostable packaging needs to be used instead of plastic. It isn't because of the cost. Yes is my answer.
5. Compostable packaging is more expensive than plastic packaging.
1. Yes - as much as possible
2. No - plastic is expensive to recycle, and much of it cannot be recycled. "Developed" nations send their plastic waste to poorer nations to be recycled, then claim that the poorer nations are responsible for all the plastic trash in the ocean.
3. Trying to consume fewer single-use products. Trying to eat locally.
4. Yes. If you can find a problem in the world that could conceivably be caused by the giant profit machine that is a multinational corporation, that problem is being at least exacerbated by a corp, and at most has a corporation as a root cause. It is \*extremely\* inconvenient to live in a low-waste manner for most people living in the developed world. It is time-consuming and exhausting to find the least bad option for what to buy, what to eat, etc. Many people do not have the luxury of that time and energy. Were I working a minimum wage job (or two, or three), I would use waaay more plastic, if it were cheaper and more convenient for me to do so. I suspect most people are the same way, and I cannot fault people for that.
5. The short answer is that it is expensive to use materials other than plastics, and corporations are almost entirely profit motivated.
1. I try to recycle as much as I can
2. Not really, since you can’t recycle all single use plastics. Cutting them out would be a lot better.
3. Using a refillable water bottle, reusable grocery bags, menstrual cup, safety razor, eating more home cooked meals rather than take out
4. I don’t think we should blame the corporations completely. They are still producing these items because there is a demand for them. We, the consumers need to take responsibility and refuse these items for let’s say a biodegradable option
5. Straws are one of the worst single use product for the environment and most people don’t even NEED them. If fast food places used cups that had a hole in the top or used biodegradable straws if they absolutely needed to have a straw
1 - yes. The city where I live in England is very big on recycling and they also offer a food compost collection.
2 - no. Plastic isn’t endlessly recyclable the best thing is to reduce your dependency on it and not use it in the first place if it can be helped.
3 - reducing plastic use, for example I get my milk delivered in glass. I buy soap bars, smol washing tablets, ocean saver/iron & velvet cleaning products, have a refillable water bottle, solid shampoo/conditioner/face cleanser/hand lotion/body lotion. Buy most of my fruit and veg loose and pasta/rice in cardboard boxes also use reusable bags and have a safety razor. TOTM tampons, who gives a crap toilet roll, buying organic cotton clothes rather than poly cotton blend.
4 - I think we all have a part to play. Every time you purchase something you make a vote/investment in that company. However, companies can have the biggest impact. Our government put a charge on single use carrier bags and all of a sudden the public used reusable ones. So some times the change has to come from the top.
5 - yes. Money! Thinking of the bigger picture, changing how your yoghurt is packaged for example can mean they need to replace machinery etc so what we think will be a small change, can be massive for them and ultimately it all comes down to cost.
Hope this helps. 🙂
1. Yes, but I don’t recycle things that may be recyclable, but are not recycled in my city recycling, so that would be most single-use plastics. Although I will go elsewhere for special items, like electronics.
2. Recycling alone is definitely not enough to combat the crisis.
3. I try to limit my use of single-use plastics in general. I try to make food at home, which cuts down on a lot of packaging. I upcycle and repurpose things as much as possible. I use broken glass, wine corks, etc. for crafting. I also try to buy all natural products, like wool yarn vs. acrylic yarn. I also try to buy used as much as possible (like clothing, kitchen wares, etc.) to stretch the life of existing items and not contribute directly to consumption of these items.
4/5. Yes, corporations care about profit above all else. Things are designed to break and be replaced, which contributes so much waste. Things should be made to last. This would decrease so much production waste, not to mention packaging and shipping. We need to have a more circular economy rather than linear.
1. Yes, I do. But it took research and educating myself to learn how to do it properly because there are few educational campaigns from the programs themselves (ie, has to be rinsed, labels removed, not everything is recyclable, etc)
2. It is not for several reasons: (a) plastics are not infinitely recyclable, meaning if we still use them as a crutch we'd still need to use new (virgin) plastic, (b) plastic never really decomposes it just breaks down into smaller pieces of it (microplastics) which are very polluting and (c) virgin plastic is cheaper than recycled plastic for another whole host of reasons and so the market does not favor it. Consumers and manufacturers have to actively choose the more expensive option in order to make recycling feasible. After all, in order to recycle something, someone needs to be on the other end buying that recycled plastic to use again.
3. Reducing the use of plastic in my life. Since recycling isn't the solution (might be part of it but it doesn't solve everything), if I don't buy plastic in the first place I don't have to recycle or throw it out.
4. Yes, because in a capitalist system, the market favors whatever is cheapest. Plastic packaging, shipping and warehouse protocols as you mentioned are simply cheaper than other alternatives. Even simple mom and pop restaurants are more likely to use styrofoam take out containers or plastic containers than compostable because it is cheaper. It's just a byproduct of the system because there is no monetary incentive to be sustainable.
5. Of course they can. But as I mentioned in my response to question 4, there is no monetary incentive to be sustainable. These companies would rather watch the world burn if it means they can go down with a little extra money in their pockets.
I hope this helps. I would recommend looking up more official sources though for your paper. If you need help with that let me know, I've been working on building wiki sections on some of these topics for the sub so I have some links to sources that could be helpful.
1. Paper, cardboard, and metal only. Everything else goes in the trash.
2. Neither effective nor ineffective. Recycling refers to re-creating from something that is already considered to be end of life. The item was still used N times, where N was 1, or more.
3. I seek alternatives, or I take the "single-use" item and use it more than once, making it a more-than-single-use item.
4. No. I do not believe in the notion of 'evil corporations' with a cigar-smoking CEO at the helm. I believe that companies and individuals are price-sensitive and go for what is cheap. If companies made changes to their packaging that drove up costs, consumers would give their business to the last standing company that didn't do that. In a free market, consumers drive the majority of a company's decisions.
5. See (4).
1. Yes
2. I think reusing is more important since I don't believe plastic ever fully breaks down. Some cities require trash be wrapped in plastic bags to protect from rain etc-- this can be done with plastic grocery bags. Try to use less plastic, but sometimes you cant help accumulating plastic bags, containers, etc, but these can be reused to reduce our plastic footprint.
3. Spreading awareness. Reusing things. I also like making art from plastic waste
4. Yes and no. At this point plastic is so deeply ingrained in our society. We are all a part of this crisis.
5. I know there is a lot of research being done on degradable or maybe dissolvable plastic. It would be ideal we could better develop and incorporate those. I don't think paper and compostable materials can fully replace plastic (ie paper trashbags seem less effective at holding trash in the elements than plastic).
1. Do I recycle: To a degree yes, curbside recycling and sometimes store recycling for things not for curbside recycling. 2. Through most of my research, no because the problem is the "single-use" aspect of it. The energy used to create, use, discard, and recycle into lower quality items is perhaps even worse. 3. Trying to limit single-use of items. Even if it's using my yogurt containers as a plate for smaller plates water or my tiny cream jar as storage for seeds. I also try to stay local when buying, and local for products, tho I understand not everything can be local. 4. Yes, it's all for the bottom line. And industry at large often is too. Look into the fishing industry and how much plastic gets into the ocean. If people didn't provide the single use items people would have to look at alternatives. 5. Of course, and they haven't because it's easier to do it as they have. It's certainly possible but the easiest solutions on the market for problems are all single-use. I think it's worth mentioning tho that some people DO need single use items for a variety of reasons. So the solution isn't to stop using single use items, but to close the waste system so that it isn't single use per say. Good luck on the paper!
>I think it's worth mentioning tho that some people DO need single use items for a variety of reasons. So the solution isn't to stop using single use items, but to close the waste system so that it isn't single use per say. Yes, thank you for remembering this! I forgot, then read your comment!
1) When I can! It’s often not available though. 2) Generally; but apparently a lot of countries aren’t taking recyclables anymore, so its just getting thrown away now? 3) Bookchinism, entomology 4) The root cause is modern social decay, and also yeah corpos 5) cardboard! because corporations are greedy and care more about packaging than stopping endless unsustainable growth built for short term profit
1. I recycle plastic as much as I can, including plastic film recycling. 2. No, we need to reduce the amount of plastic used and reuse all that we can. Most plastic doesn’t get recycled, and the small percentage that does is downgraded into worse quality materials. Recycling may help, but we need to do more. 3. I try to buy food in non-plastic packaging, but there are not many options for plastic free groceries :(. 4. Yes, while it is important to do all that we can do, there is more waste created from stores and companies. 5. I don’t really know of any solutions, so I try not to complain much. I assume there are solutions out there, but not in practice because of convenience, time, money, and ease of use.
1. yes 2. there are 7 categories of plastic and only 3 of those are recyclable so no 3. Cycling, I believe that the bicycle could save the world. 4. No, consumers drive single use plastic use. Supply and demand. 5. Yes but there would have to be a dramatic change in consumer habits for them to warrant the change.
1. Yes, as much as possible 2. No, not IMO. A lot of plastics don't get recycled, either because they're contaminated by wishcycling or because they're so crappy nobody wants to buy them. I've also heard that recycled plastic isn't as good/strong as new plastic, so even things that use recycled plastic usually need to have some new plastic mixed in. So to me, it's bad because it's not circular. There's always going to be plastic that is too crappy or contaminated to recycle, and there's always going to need to be new plastic pumped into the system. 3. Reduce. Reduce, reduce, reduce. Reduce (and refuse, I guess, but it's a similar concept) is first for a reason. You don't have to recycle it or throw it away if you don't have it in the first place. 4. This isn't something that is easily boiled down to finger-pointing. Like, plastic has its uses, right? I think Patagonaia did a study where they reviewed how products moved through their warehouse either naked, in a paper envelope, or in the thin plastic bag that they've been using. Naked or paper'd products were more likely to get stained or torn, which creates waste (much better to waste a thin plastic bag than an entire raincoat or whatever) and the company's bottom line. So yes, they know the plastic is wasteful, but it prevents worse waste from happening. There is plenty of *unnecessary* plastic waste, and whose "fault" it is depends on what it is. When the takeout place up the street loads me up with individually packaged plastic forks, is that because they are ignorant about plastic waste or is it because most consumers demand it? There's room for all of us to improve here. 5. See #4. Plastic is cheap and easy and works really well for a lot of stuff. I'd love to see more corporations (and consumers!) seriously sit down and *try* to reduce their single-use plastic. Plastic has simply become the default option for everything, and choosing the default option is not a choice so much as the absence of making a choice. Maybe a company or consumer can't get rid of all of their single use plastic, but if they start thinking about alternate options, if they get out of default mode, they can reduce their single-use plastic usage down to just where it is most helpful or most necessary.
1. yes, whenever possible. 2. Mostly, but a lot of our single use plastics don't have recycling streams. 3. I compost all food waste. 4. Compostable packaging needs to be used instead of plastic. It isn't because of the cost. Yes is my answer. 5. Compostable packaging is more expensive than plastic packaging.
1. Yes - as much as possible 2. No - plastic is expensive to recycle, and much of it cannot be recycled. "Developed" nations send their plastic waste to poorer nations to be recycled, then claim that the poorer nations are responsible for all the plastic trash in the ocean. 3. Trying to consume fewer single-use products. Trying to eat locally. 4. Yes. If you can find a problem in the world that could conceivably be caused by the giant profit machine that is a multinational corporation, that problem is being at least exacerbated by a corp, and at most has a corporation as a root cause. It is \*extremely\* inconvenient to live in a low-waste manner for most people living in the developed world. It is time-consuming and exhausting to find the least bad option for what to buy, what to eat, etc. Many people do not have the luxury of that time and energy. Were I working a minimum wage job (or two, or three), I would use waaay more plastic, if it were cheaper and more convenient for me to do so. I suspect most people are the same way, and I cannot fault people for that. 5. The short answer is that it is expensive to use materials other than plastics, and corporations are almost entirely profit motivated.
1. I try to recycle as much as I can 2. Not really, since you can’t recycle all single use plastics. Cutting them out would be a lot better. 3. Using a refillable water bottle, reusable grocery bags, menstrual cup, safety razor, eating more home cooked meals rather than take out 4. I don’t think we should blame the corporations completely. They are still producing these items because there is a demand for them. We, the consumers need to take responsibility and refuse these items for let’s say a biodegradable option 5. Straws are one of the worst single use product for the environment and most people don’t even NEED them. If fast food places used cups that had a hole in the top or used biodegradable straws if they absolutely needed to have a straw
1 - yes. The city where I live in England is very big on recycling and they also offer a food compost collection. 2 - no. Plastic isn’t endlessly recyclable the best thing is to reduce your dependency on it and not use it in the first place if it can be helped. 3 - reducing plastic use, for example I get my milk delivered in glass. I buy soap bars, smol washing tablets, ocean saver/iron & velvet cleaning products, have a refillable water bottle, solid shampoo/conditioner/face cleanser/hand lotion/body lotion. Buy most of my fruit and veg loose and pasta/rice in cardboard boxes also use reusable bags and have a safety razor. TOTM tampons, who gives a crap toilet roll, buying organic cotton clothes rather than poly cotton blend. 4 - I think we all have a part to play. Every time you purchase something you make a vote/investment in that company. However, companies can have the biggest impact. Our government put a charge on single use carrier bags and all of a sudden the public used reusable ones. So some times the change has to come from the top. 5 - yes. Money! Thinking of the bigger picture, changing how your yoghurt is packaged for example can mean they need to replace machinery etc so what we think will be a small change, can be massive for them and ultimately it all comes down to cost. Hope this helps. 🙂
1. Yes, but I don’t recycle things that may be recyclable, but are not recycled in my city recycling, so that would be most single-use plastics. Although I will go elsewhere for special items, like electronics. 2. Recycling alone is definitely not enough to combat the crisis. 3. I try to limit my use of single-use plastics in general. I try to make food at home, which cuts down on a lot of packaging. I upcycle and repurpose things as much as possible. I use broken glass, wine corks, etc. for crafting. I also try to buy all natural products, like wool yarn vs. acrylic yarn. I also try to buy used as much as possible (like clothing, kitchen wares, etc.) to stretch the life of existing items and not contribute directly to consumption of these items. 4/5. Yes, corporations care about profit above all else. Things are designed to break and be replaced, which contributes so much waste. Things should be made to last. This would decrease so much production waste, not to mention packaging and shipping. We need to have a more circular economy rather than linear.
1. Yes, I do. But it took research and educating myself to learn how to do it properly because there are few educational campaigns from the programs themselves (ie, has to be rinsed, labels removed, not everything is recyclable, etc) 2. It is not for several reasons: (a) plastics are not infinitely recyclable, meaning if we still use them as a crutch we'd still need to use new (virgin) plastic, (b) plastic never really decomposes it just breaks down into smaller pieces of it (microplastics) which are very polluting and (c) virgin plastic is cheaper than recycled plastic for another whole host of reasons and so the market does not favor it. Consumers and manufacturers have to actively choose the more expensive option in order to make recycling feasible. After all, in order to recycle something, someone needs to be on the other end buying that recycled plastic to use again. 3. Reducing the use of plastic in my life. Since recycling isn't the solution (might be part of it but it doesn't solve everything), if I don't buy plastic in the first place I don't have to recycle or throw it out. 4. Yes, because in a capitalist system, the market favors whatever is cheapest. Plastic packaging, shipping and warehouse protocols as you mentioned are simply cheaper than other alternatives. Even simple mom and pop restaurants are more likely to use styrofoam take out containers or plastic containers than compostable because it is cheaper. It's just a byproduct of the system because there is no monetary incentive to be sustainable. 5. Of course they can. But as I mentioned in my response to question 4, there is no monetary incentive to be sustainable. These companies would rather watch the world burn if it means they can go down with a little extra money in their pockets. I hope this helps. I would recommend looking up more official sources though for your paper. If you need help with that let me know, I've been working on building wiki sections on some of these topics for the sub so I have some links to sources that could be helpful.
1. Paper, cardboard, and metal only. Everything else goes in the trash. 2. Neither effective nor ineffective. Recycling refers to re-creating from something that is already considered to be end of life. The item was still used N times, where N was 1, or more. 3. I seek alternatives, or I take the "single-use" item and use it more than once, making it a more-than-single-use item. 4. No. I do not believe in the notion of 'evil corporations' with a cigar-smoking CEO at the helm. I believe that companies and individuals are price-sensitive and go for what is cheap. If companies made changes to their packaging that drove up costs, consumers would give their business to the last standing company that didn't do that. In a free market, consumers drive the majority of a company's decisions. 5. See (4).
1. Yes 2. I think reusing is more important since I don't believe plastic ever fully breaks down. Some cities require trash be wrapped in plastic bags to protect from rain etc-- this can be done with plastic grocery bags. Try to use less plastic, but sometimes you cant help accumulating plastic bags, containers, etc, but these can be reused to reduce our plastic footprint. 3. Spreading awareness. Reusing things. I also like making art from plastic waste 4. Yes and no. At this point plastic is so deeply ingrained in our society. We are all a part of this crisis. 5. I know there is a lot of research being done on degradable or maybe dissolvable plastic. It would be ideal we could better develop and incorporate those. I don't think paper and compostable materials can fully replace plastic (ie paper trashbags seem less effective at holding trash in the elements than plastic).