[alt text: first, there's text over a happy Albinauric from Elden Ring saying "me when I thought recycling would save the world. second, there's text over a sad/depressed Albinauric from Elden Ring saying "me after I found out that plastic corporations invented plastic recycling to put the responsibility onto the consumer even though they knew plastic recycling was both chemically and financially not feasible, and now I have plastic in my brain, lungs, and testicles".]
When they rolled out disposable plastic bags, they said they were green because they saved trees. I remember. The paper in bags was and is created using pulp from farmed trees, like other crops.
Lots of inventions get changed or have knock on effects different than the inventor intended. We didn't get lazy, the corporations saw a cheaper alternative to disposable paper bags and went with it. It is a systemic issue that rises above the end consumers decision.
You invent a plastic bag of sufficient thickness to serve for a year or more. The grocery chain sees better profits with tissue thin disposable bags though. Guess which one wins?
Well yeah. We need to properly dispose of what we can get back from the environment. But that doesn't mean we should keep using it. It should be a case of proving something needs to be plastic, not passing laws to ban one plastic thing at a time.
Every time I turn the LED light off to save the world I open up my plane app and see a thousand jet liners in flight. I then open the boat app and see ten thousand cargo freighters. Then I look at a picture of New York and Las Vegas at night.
I think they’re confusing the fact that faux fur is less environmentally friendly than real fur. Real fur can biodegrade, faux fur is plastic. It’s the “vegan leather” debate.
Yes it was a huge news story a few years ago, a lot of designer labels were just not labeling and quietly claiming it was synthetic or labeling real fur synthetic.