[HN Gopher] US Should Create Strategy by End of '22 to Reduce In... ___________________________________________________________________ US Should Create Strategy by End of '22 to Reduce Increasing Ocean Plastic Waste Author : infodocket Score : 54 points Date : 2021-12-02 20:11 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.nationalacademies.org) (TXT) w3m dump (www.nationalacademies.org) | mkskm wrote: | Proposed initiatives / advocacy orgs | | https://www.beyondplastics.org | | https://www.plasticfreepresident.org | | https://camustlead.org | | https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5845 | makerofspoons wrote: | We could stimulate the domestic textile industry to mass produce | clothing without plastic fibers while phasing out fabrics that | are depositing microplastics in the oceans: | https://phys.org/news/2021-01-arctic-microplastic-pollution.... | ConanRus wrote: | Didn't find words "China" and "India" in the article, well done. | | The whole program should have: #1 make Asia to stop polluting the | ocean | tfehring wrote: | Relevant: https://hwfo.substack.com/p/an-illustrated-guide-to- | plastic-... | | TL;DR: The bulk of plastic entering the oceans comes from China, | India, and Southeast Asia; it's still somewhat the US's fault | since we dispose of a lot of plastic per capita and send much of | our recycled plastic there; accordingly, the author claims, | Americans should generally throw plastic in the garbage instead | of recycling it. | sa1 wrote: | This is only looking at river waste. The major contributor to | plastic waste in the ocean is fishing gear. | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/06/dumped-f... | ajsnigrutin wrote: | Yep... but politicians ban plastic straws and then brag how | they're saving the planet, while those guys can do whatever | they want. | sa1 wrote: | Plastic pollution is a global issue, but not a tribal | issue. There's no us vs those guys. | tfehring wrote: | That's a good point, but " _the_ major contributor " seems | like a stretch. That article claims 640,000 tonnes/year of | fishing equipment end up in the ocean, which is ~8% of the 8 | million tonnes/year of overall plastic waste that end up in | the ocean according to https://www.theguardian.com/us- | news/2019/jul/30/paddling-in-... | sa1 wrote: | This might be true, but it seems commonly described as the | major contributor because it's 40-70% of floating plastic | and macroplastics. On the other hand, microplastics sink to | the ocean bed. https://hillnotes.ca/2020/01/30/ghost- | fishing-gear-a-major-s... I'm not sure which has more | environmental impact. | latchkey wrote: | I spent 4 years living in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. It is | literally in the culture to just throw shit into the ocean, | rivers, everywhere. It is painful to watch how bad it is. | RobertRoberts wrote: | Relevant quote from that page: | | > And zero plastic thrown in a garbage can in the United States | enters the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. | dnautics wrote: | this is a third derivative. | | - strategy by (= / delta-t == 1yr) | | - reduce increasing (d/dt^2) | lettergram wrote: | I'm just going to leave this here... | | https://www.statista.com/statistics/1270819/ocean-plastic-po... | | The U.S. isn't even in the top 10 producers of plastic waste in | oceans (it's something like >30th on the list). | | It's effectively 80+% from Asian countries. | | https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution | oh_sigh wrote: | > Taking a leadership role in preventing plastic pollution | would position the U.S. to shape and influence global plastic | production, design, and innovation -- and possibly create new | economic opportunities, the report says. | lettergram wrote: | The U.S. dictating to the poor backwards nations of the asian | pacific will go over well. | | More likely, a company setup by the family member of several | U.S. politicians will receive funds from the U.S. government | to aid in "transitioning" these economies to a post-plastics | world. None of which will be effective and largely be like | the Clinton Foundation in Haiti. | | The reality is that reducing crude oil to gasoline production | will remove the ability to produce plastics. As plastics | become more expensive, different materials will be utilized. | BostonEnginerd wrote: | I believe that the feedstock for most plastics is natural | gas. | 8note wrote: | America is the main military and economic power in the | Asian Pacific. Currently the US has the power to dictate | such terms, but the countries probably can't actually | fulfill them | [deleted] | sjtindell wrote: | As I understand the United States and others just ship all | their plastic to Asia where it is dumped in the ocean so they | can claim they are green for whatever consumer advocate. | nitwit005 wrote: | Most of the world signed a treaty in 2019 to stop the flow of | trash from wealthy countries (Basel Convention). | | But worth noting its firms in the poor countries buying the | stuff as scrap to recycle, and tossing or burning the stuff | they couldn't recycle. | howmayiannoyyou wrote: | Nope. Most asian nations (China most notably) stopped or | greatly reduces such imports about 5 years ago. And, even | when these imports were happening, its was for reprocessing, | not disposal purposes. Yes, if recycled plastics prices | precipitously fell then some importers may have dumped the | imports, but that was not generally the case. You may also be | confusing plastic waste with electronic scrap which contains | plastic waste. Here again, those imports have largely | stopped. | jeromegv wrote: | It stopped in China, not in the rest of Asia. | soperj wrote: | They reduced the imports of stuff that was just garbage. | maxerickson wrote: | My county landfill gets paid for the plastic that trucks come | and take away (or they put it in the landfill). | | Who is supposedly paying to come pick it up, put it on a | boat, and so on, instead of just putting it into the | landfill? | JamesBarney wrote: | It's specifically recycled material. Stuff that's thrown away | makes it into well managed U.S. landfills with no issues. | spaetzleesser wrote: | How about showing some leadership from the "leader of the free | world"? | yodsanklai wrote: | > The U.S. isn't even in the top 10 producers of plastic waste | in oceans | | Does it make it ok for them to throw plastic in oceans? | mc32 wrote: | Go for the low hanging fruit first, then, when you're done | there, go for the slim Pickins. Bang for the buck. | JamesBarney wrote: | I didn't read anywhere in OPs comment that it was ok to | litter in the US because India produces 50x more waste. | | Given we have limited time and resources I believe he is | implying that it's easier to reduce Indian waste by 1% than | reduce American waste by 50%. So we should probably focus on | former. | gennarro wrote: | Can't have high seas fisheries with plastic at this level | https://ofr.report/pi/2021-26321/ | | It's really troubling to see space trash get more concern than | ocean trash given our reliance on the oceans (not to downplay the | problem of near-earth collisions) | dinnison wrote: | Plastic only becomes waste and ends up in the ocean if it is not | collected properly. We're solving this problem at Replenysh. | | How we think about circularity: https://replenysh.com/blog/an- | opportunity-to-evolve ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-12-02 23:00 UTC)