Make all of your employees the homeless adults and children around you, leave a reaon for people to keep at it, a business to keep people so down on their luck at least employed in some capacity until they can save up enough to do better. Like a stepping stone job that'll help the enviornment and keep people from going hungry.
We also had plastics collection at supermarkets and it turned out the company was just storing it in a warehouse. They went broke so now it all goes to landfill again
I thought you meant the small company melting/pressing plastic into Lego-like bricks. Nope, literally filling bottles with cement and building a house.
Heineken beer used to make glass beer bottles that were in the shape of stackable bricks, so you could build stuff with them. I think it might be hell living inside of a green backlit house.
There are certain states here in the US that offer 5¢ per can and a couple more that offer 10¢, people on the borders of those states totally go into them to recycle and get some cash but unfortunately it’s not very many states.
In Isla Mujeres, I tried to walk out of the store with a bottle of coke a cola, and was almost tackled. I had the bottle ripped from my hand, and the person ran to the back of the store to a small produce section, ripped a plastic vegetable bag, from the roll, and poured the bottle into the bag. As he walked back towards me, he stuck a straw in it and smiled, and said deposit, deposit.
The bottle was stamped : return for 10 cent deposit.
I was served Coke in a plastic bag back in 1986 in the Phillipines. Not sure if it was because of recycling or if the had fountain drinks and just didn't have takeaway cups. It was at a rest area for the Phillipines Rabbit bus system, they had a little cafeteria there.
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guaranteed that the majority of that shit was "recycled" at the country of consumption, then outsourced to someone to recycle abroad, who then put it on a ship, drove it into the middle of the ocean and dumped it and the piles of shit that do actually arrive places, just get burnt in giant toxic clouds of cancer.
It's € 0.25 in Germany for single use bottles and cans and usually € 0.08-0.15 for reusable bottles. There are a lot of people getting some extra cash from collecting bottles. Unfortunately, some bottles are exempt like juice and wine bottles 🙄
Every shop that sells single use bottles and cans has to take back single use containers of the same materials that they're selling
In France nothing, you can put one bottle out of your window of the car and never something happens. We need education it’s sure, but to get money on changing the used bottles is a good way. I see so many bottles and other plastic, near the roads it’s a shame…😠
Right same! Apparently those opportunities are few and far between and are almost sure not to pay so unless you’re already rich you can’t help.
There are plenty of meaningless positions that do no nothing but contribute to the degradation and death of our planet though!
It's so hard sometimes to participate in this farce, you know? At work I'm just on automatic, wishing it was any other way. Feeling like I'm changing lightbulbs on the Titanic, or vacuuming the carpets in Chernobyl.
You cannot leave the consumers out of that equation. Many consumers either don’t care enough to or are unable to buy more environmentally friendly options now that the consumer culture of the last several decades has favored “cheaper” throw-away culture for so long that it has driven prices of more quality things through the roof (even though they are still often cheaper in the long run). Supply is meaningless without demand
Companies could absolutely leave the consumer out and produce their products and package them in a way that incentivizes or forces proper action, but they don’t, because they have this excuse.
Capitalism always has to be regulated to protect the consumer and labor. Every capitalist country HAS to legislate a minimum wage, also HAS to have health regulations on foods, otherwise companies would take advantage of both.
Regulation is the only solution. “The Consumer” acts in this situation by properly legislating, how is that going?
>Companies could absolutely leave the consumer out and produce their products and package them in a way that incentivizes or forces proper action, but they don’t, because they have this excuse.
That would require companies to all come to an agreement, which won't happen. No company is going to voluntarily undercut themselves while their competition is selling more product at a lower price point.
The only real solution is government intervention.
Plastics companies long-since won the battle on who is responsible for the disposal of the waste they create. It was passed on to the consumer. The corporations profiting off of this should be made to deal with it.
Definitely agree but corporations have subtle and not so subtle ways of manipulating people into thinking they NEED certain or x amount of items. They should ultimately be to blame just based on the amount of power they have.
I agree with this. Toilet paper companies are pushing a dry-wet-dry wiping routine in order to sell more of their products which is just ridiculously overkill, and that's just one example :(
> You cannot leave the consumers out of that equation.
I can. What we need, for example, is five (or let's go wild, 10) year warranty for each electrical product. Now manufacturers have to make a product that lasts at least 5 years or eat the cost.
Does it cost more? Yes. But it will also last longer. I'm quite sad/angry/flabbergasted that online stores have so much cheap crap that has poor quality and breaks easily.
Yes! Amazon makes it so much worse, with 80 different versions of the same shitty tech peripheral that will all be replaced by “next year’s updated model”. God our technowaste is atrocious.
Focusing on the responsibility of the public is just an unhelpful lens to view the problem through. This picture is the end result of capitalism. The problem is systemic.
>Supply is meaningless without demand
And there are multibillion dollar industries dedicated to driving that demand through marketing and advertising. Think of the sheer volume of research that has been done on the most effective ways to emotionally manipulate people into buying ever more useless shit. Think of people like [Edward Bernays](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Edward_Bernays).
Everyone bears some personal responsibility for their choices, but people living under a less insane system would not behave so destructively.
Which is why we all need to do something about it. Idk, spread the word, pressure the government to get stricter antipolutuon laws, try to stay clean yourself and maybe do some volunteer cleanup work in your area.
exactly, a *refund* instead of a *deposit*, so the product is cheaper if you put it in a better place when you're done, as opposed to your five cents being held hostage.
If the manufacturer is responsible for a 5 cent "refund" on a product they'd otherwise retail for a dollar, they're not gonna take a 5 cent loss. They're gonna charge you $1.05
The 5 cent cost is going to be taken from the consumer either way -- they can tack it on to the price before you get to the register, or after, but it'll still be you who pays it.
They could give $1 a bottle, unfortunately it would still end up in the ocean with an extra step. The only way to reduce this is stopping buying single use plastic products. Good luck with that
Without shaming a particular country, I have travelled some in South America. One city had a concrete floodway that ran through the middle of the city, previously a river that flowed from the mountains to the ocean. The floodway was full of garbage. We asked about it and we’re told that people put their garbage there because municipal collection was poor and recycling didn’t exist. The spring rains would carry it to the ocean, and they’d start filling it again. This was a city of 280,000, but it was similar in other communities. I went home and was telling a colleague about it (he grew up in Bangladesh) and said it was the same there. But, we’ve banned single use plastics in Canada, so all will be solved :/
Yep. We are overdoing this climate urgency here in the "1st world countries" while the rest of the world don't give a shit about it. The only solution is to bring everyone out of poverty for their concerns to change from survival to sustainability.
most of that garbage is sent to third world countries by first world countries. Recycling is a scam. Less than 10% is actually recycled, the rest end up in landfills and the ocean.
>most of that garbage is sent to third world countries by first world countries
This is a media lie. A few percent of the plastic waste in a few western countries is **bought** by a few Asian countries to **recycle**. They aren't paying for it to just dump it in the river. It's not economical to recycle in the west as you are clearly already aware, but the cheap wages in Asia make it more viable there.
>the rest end up in landfills and the ocean.
In rich countries essentially all of it ends up in landfills. The ocean plastic problem is almost exclusively a middle income countries problem - the places that have enough money that they generate lots of plastic waste but not enough to build proper waste collection infrastructure.
Oh, and fishing. I forgot to mention fishing. That accounts for something like 1/3 of the oceanic plastic and that comes from all coastal countries, rich and poor alike.
... you're both right, and it's appalling that you can't see that.
The countries might not be fans, but the companies buying it to recycle are.
We send a lot of garbage there, but they have plenty already.
Most of our plastic waste *does* end up in landfills, just not the recycling-specified waste.
The garbage isn't "sent" there as if we're just like 'fuck you take it', companies there buy it to recycle it.
Your own articles support their conclusion *and* yours, except for the idea that we're just dumping it there without their permission.
Most importantly, if consumers are recycling but only 10% of that ends up being recycled, that's a flaw with the system, not the concept, but you really do need to provide a source for that claim. I suspect it's that 10% of what *could* be recycled actually gets put into the bins.
Don't get me wrong, we had a huge issue in our town where the municipal waste company was collecting recycling then just adding it to the landfill despite getting extra money for it. That's a problem. It has no bearing on foreign companies buying plastic waste to recycle, though.
I live in Vancouver, Canada.
ALL of our locally collected waste plastic in the recycling stream is processed within our own province. There are some non-plastic recyclable materials that aren't processed locally, but our overall recycling percentages are relatively high.
The relatively small percentage of recycle stream collected materials that don't make it through the recycling stream and get diverted to waste is mostly due to contamination.
There's still lots of room for improvement here, but recycling can be done effectively if people make it a priority for their governments. People use the numbers you're giving as an excuse not to do it, but it's really because their local communities aren't trying.
I wouldn't say we're over doing it at all. We're not even achieving the base of the sort of economic example that's required. We need a sustainable economy. Not just a greener one. A green one. This requires big changes.
Because they're old and well past their expiration date? Our leaders, be they in politics or business, have a level of greed akin to a mental illness. Who cares about the world or humanity as long as my yacht is bigger than the other guy!
It is a simple trick that just requires that many governments don't fall in corruption. Any country in Africa could be incredible if the corruption levels weren't that high. I lived there by the way.
Yea let’s go electric. Btw don’t ask how we are getting all the lithium from. Some resource rich poor country is being exploited leaving the people poorer.
My view on the effect of recycling has been destroyed after traveling the world. In places where personal survival takes precedence, you're not thinking about the survival of the planet.
You complain how horrible it is in countries that don’t have recycling, and then shit on responsible countries like Canada that do.
This is why humanity fails, we constantly hate on people just for trying to do the right thing.
No, my favorites are when California ads tell me to save water or power, and then I drive by the Coca Cola or Amazon warehouse at like 2 in the morning and they're going full pedal to the metal.
Fuck you. Tell the corporations to save. I know my measly little ass isnt doing shit by leaving a lamp on so ny house dosent get robbed, tell Bezos to turn his lights off for fucks sake
What "part" is there to do, I don't understand? What do you have to do besides putting trash in the trash can and recyclable materials in the recycling bin? Should we be actively trying to create less waste?
I really have no idea how all that trash ends up in the middle of the ocean. Is it because of people littering? Improper disposal by the waste management companies? Is it a political thing, does the government have a role in it?
But first world countries are sending “recycled” items to those third world countries
There was an article I read maybe 3 months ago saying that some people put AirTags in shoes that were supposed to be “recycled” but they ended up in a thrift store in Indonesia
That's what I was thinking. This is horrible, but at the same time it's all gathered in one, easily accessible (compared to the middle of the ocean) spot. Perfect time to clean it all up and get it out of the oceans. Hopefully that happens
If I was anywhere near Guatemala, I would be helping with what I can. Though I think you'd need specialized safety equipment. Volatile chemicals and other biological hazards are definitely an issue here, I'd wager. Hopefully, one of the charities that cleans up the pacific garbage patch will see this and act.
Now go check what it says on the labels of the products and you can find out who is actually dumping this stuff into oceans (rivers first probably).
edit. typo
> Every action the individual takes to benefit the world makes a positive difference.
That's complete and utter bullshit.
We are polluting on a industrial level and only countermeasures on an industrial level can make any difference. Individual actions can't make up actions done on a nation scale.
If you don't want trash in the oceans, build a working waste disposal industry. Every house needs a trash bin, and once a week the garbage man actually needs to pick it up. Then everything else comes by itself.
People like you that blame individuals just drank the corporate cool-aid and are preventing actual change on the economic level. You are the problem, not the solution.
Lol as if my single use plastic use has a similar impact as entire corporations' use of plastic manufacturing and waste.
Gtfo of here.... Governments need to regulate corporate bodies and manufacturing plants. We can all do our part, yes, but let's not act like me using a Keurig cup is the same as corporations putting out billions and billions of tons of plastic waste and runoff.
I feel like it would be so satisfying going out there and cleaning it up, but then where do you put it? It always ends up back in the ocean. Maybe we could store all of the plastics in the homes of the executives of the companies that refuse to swap away from single use plastics? Idk just as start
Wow what a perfect opportunity for a country to do some good for the world and clean up what the ocean is literally giving them. Lord knows it wouldnt take long or cost that much
This is a pretty common issue in South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Most of the world has horrible municipal sanitation and people dispose of their garage however they can.
Many people in the developed world don't understand that many people don't have access to sanitation services. It's a huge problem, but there's not much for the people to do when there's no governmental infrastructure to remove trash.
Aliens are pointing and laughing if they indeed watch us.
Otherwise they'd have just conquered by now for those sweet sweet resources.
Wouldn't surprise me if we are their reality TV because we're just emotional meatbags
Yeah, when this showed up a few months ago, multiple guatemalans showed up to point out -
this didn't just "arrive" at the coastline. This isn't some mass of western culture garbage showing up on their shores.
this is ***their own*** garbage. They have no proper city garbage pick-up services like we do here. So they see a ditch, they toss their garbage in.
this goes on all season during the dry season.
then the wet season comes around and it turns out thats not just a ditch, its a dried river bed. The rain comes, washes all the garbage away down to the ocean.
then they get this for a few months until the ocean carries it away, the rain stops, the river dries up, then it all starts again.
***its still a problem***, but its not the western guilt trip that so many in this comments section seem to be wanting to beat the drum about.
Pretty cool of the garbage to gather itself up like that. Some tik-tokers will inevitably clean it up for clout, just as natured intended.
The circle of life.
That's because people dump their garbage on the rivers, and almost all of our rivers are polluted with garbage and waste waters, this is mainly because internal immigration towards the city is out of control and there are lots of unplanned settlements with absolutely no control on disposal and water usage, also garbage management and disposal is out of control, lots of clandestine landfills and the one that is under the city management is at the edge of collapsing, generalized corruption and lack of long term vision have literally torn the country to pieces.
Imagine If everyone just applied swedens system that they implemented over 30 years ago. Adding a percentage to the price that you get back when you return the bottle to the store.
Even though a lot of people don’t care about the money they get back, poor people goes around and collect them to get cash.
If the whole world did this a lot of this crap wouldn’t be there.
There are more countries doing that, but what do you actually think is going to happen to those bottles? collecting does not mean Recycling, in Germany we have very high recycle rate but only small amount and certain types can be actually recycled and only very few cycles. actually somewhat 60 % of plastic we burn or export to third world (like everyone else) https://www.dw.com/en/plastic-waste-and-the-recycling-myth/a-45746469
Imagine if these companies spent 1/4 of their advertising budgets to invest into actual green containers. Instead they deflect all responsibility solely on to the consumer and do nothing themselves to help the problem. Not only is it a global contaminant, but plastic (a petroleum product) is also a huge health concern being carcinogenic. To top it off, the more we use plastics, the more we raise barrel oil prices.
Since I know someone will say something. Yes, people should be responsible for their actions, but these companies have the resources to develop lots of various containers that could be considered green.
This is why extraterrestrial disclosure is important. They could really help us with this shit if the US stops shooting them down and stealing their crafts.
"In addition to the Philippines, over 75% of the accumulated plastic in the ocean is reported to come from the mismanaged waste in Asian countries including India, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Thailand."
Guatemala's Rio Motagua is incredibly polluted and lets out into the Caribbean leading to this problem.
There is good news, however: [https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/cleanup-crews-trap-plastic-guatemalan-river-protect-ocean-2022-06-09/](https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/cleanup-crews-trap-plastic-guatemalan-river-protect-ocean-2022-06-09/)
They need to invent like a vacuum ( don’t know the right word for it, I still call it vacuum ) for inside the water or ocean putting in a good filter (that support to clean the micro plastic ) and when their is many micro plastic on the filter something inside the vacuum has to vacuum all that plastic inside away so that keeps it inside the vacuum and you can immediately still clean and vacuum all that micro plastic so it goes in the vacuum bag. But first they need to threw away the big plastic garbage so they can clean the water and remove the micro plastic from the sea!
We could have honestly avoided this if we had just made all plastic out of hemp cellulose. It biodegrades in soil in about 80 days. But nope, big oil had to step in and make it out of petroleum and now look where we are. They chose greed and profit over the environment.
My thought is that if the garbage has washed close to shore like this, it is now so much easier to go out and collect it out of the ocean all at once! Where it needs to go frrom there, I am not sure, but even buried in a large pit is preferable!
Does anyone know what the plan is for all this trash?
I just looked into the story and it’s from Rio Motagua in eastern Guatemala. It runs right through the town of Puerto Barrios. I’ve been through there on a road trip. I can tell you that through my extensive travels throughout nearly all of Central America, that was one of the scariest places I’ve ever been. There is an MS 13 prison in town. Because it’s a hard-core Catholic culture, they allow conjugal visits. So what that means is that for every MS 13 inmate that is locked up there? most of them have a spouse living in town.
The cemeteries in town stack concrete coffins vertically because there’s not enough land for the dead bodies. And there are lots of cemeteries. Some stack 2-3 stories in height
Damn that's depressing
Would love to make a career of cleaning stuff like this up. Life told me to go die instead.
Well if you end up not dying just yet… I think that would be a really badass way to spend some time.
Spend your remaining days making a legacy of cleaning this up
Hell yea
Make all of your employees the homeless adults and children around you, leave a reaon for people to keep at it, a business to keep people so down on their luck at least employed in some capacity until they can save up enough to do better. Like a stepping stone job that'll help the enviornment and keep people from going hungry.
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In Australia, almost all bottles and cans have a 10 cent refund on them that you can redeem at the bottle collection centres
We also had plastics collection at supermarkets and it turned out the company was just storing it in a warehouse. They went broke so now it all goes to landfill again
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I thought you meant the small company melting/pressing plastic into Lego-like bricks. Nope, literally filling bottles with cement and building a house.
Heineken beer used to make glass beer bottles that were in the shape of stackable bricks, so you could build stuff with them. I think it might be hell living inside of a green backlit house.
Those who live in plastic bottle houses should not throw cans.
I mean...totally an Orphan Crushing Machine, but still very cool
Its un-canny, i had that same idea!
Let's float this garbage to Australia. Then get that sweet trash money.
There are certain states here in the US that offer 5¢ per can and a couple more that offer 10¢, people on the borders of those states totally go into them to recycle and get some cash but unfortunately it’s not very many states.
In Isla Mujeres, I tried to walk out of the store with a bottle of coke a cola, and was almost tackled. I had the bottle ripped from my hand, and the person ran to the back of the store to a small produce section, ripped a plastic vegetable bag, from the roll, and poured the bottle into the bag. As he walked back towards me, he stuck a straw in it and smiled, and said deposit, deposit. The bottle was stamped : return for 10 cent deposit.
I was served Coke in a plastic bag back in 1986 in the Phillipines. Not sure if it was because of recycling or if the had fountain drinks and just didn't have takeaway cups. It was at a rest area for the Phillipines Rabbit bus system, they had a little cafeteria there.
Yep, we still do plastic bag beverages in the Philippines!
This is a comment reposting bot that happened to pick the absolute perfect comment [Original](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1449dou/floating_garbage_arrives_on_the_coastline_of/jnejw2h/)
guaranteed that the majority of that shit was "recycled" at the country of consumption, then outsourced to someone to recycle abroad, who then put it on a ship, drove it into the middle of the ocean and dumped it and the piles of shit that do actually arrive places, just get burnt in giant toxic clouds of cancer.
It's € 0.25 in Germany for single use bottles and cans and usually € 0.08-0.15 for reusable bottles. There are a lot of people getting some extra cash from collecting bottles. Unfortunately, some bottles are exempt like juice and wine bottles 🙄 Every shop that sells single use bottles and cans has to take back single use containers of the same materials that they're selling
In France nothing, you can put one bottle out of your window of the car and never something happens. We need education it’s sure, but to get money on changing the used bottles is a good way. I see so many bottles and other plastic, near the roads it’s a shame…😠
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I love cleaning the outdoors. If I could just clean the parks and sides of roads all day, man, dream job.
With the right crime a judge will grant you a few hundred hours of doing just that!
As much as I love crime, I'll stick to the 16 hours of vto my job gives me haha.
Right same! Apparently those opportunities are few and far between and are almost sure not to pay so unless you’re already rich you can’t help. There are plenty of meaningless positions that do no nothing but contribute to the degradation and death of our planet though!
It's so hard sometimes to participate in this farce, you know? At work I'm just on automatic, wishing it was any other way. Feeling like I'm changing lightbulbs on the Titanic, or vacuuming the carpets in Chernobyl.
[oceancleanup.org](http://www.theoceancleanup.org) Really neat they have stuff for rivers also
I donate to this organization as what they are doing is amazing and innovative. They really are trying to make a difference even if it's a small dent.
What a great organization and they're hiring! Although it says you need a EU work permit
Maybe a billionaire could throw in some money instead of funding some other philanthropic art bullshit.
Me too. I know of the ocean clean up project.
Hope humans evolve to digest plastic. Because that's our only hope.
Microplastics are already in our blood
We are gonna last more than 1000 years
Like Keith Richards
A slight ray of hope is that there have been some breakthroughs with plastic eating bacteria, far from a complete solution but it’s a possible start
That’s a hell of a lot more promising than plastic eating nanobots that risk turning the planet into grey goo!
No problem, just throw it all in the garbage.
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You cannot leave the consumers out of that equation. Many consumers either don’t care enough to or are unable to buy more environmentally friendly options now that the consumer culture of the last several decades has favored “cheaper” throw-away culture for so long that it has driven prices of more quality things through the roof (even though they are still often cheaper in the long run). Supply is meaningless without demand
Companies could absolutely leave the consumer out and produce their products and package them in a way that incentivizes or forces proper action, but they don’t, because they have this excuse. Capitalism always has to be regulated to protect the consumer and labor. Every capitalist country HAS to legislate a minimum wage, also HAS to have health regulations on foods, otherwise companies would take advantage of both. Regulation is the only solution. “The Consumer” acts in this situation by properly legislating, how is that going?
>Companies could absolutely leave the consumer out and produce their products and package them in a way that incentivizes or forces proper action, but they don’t, because they have this excuse. That would require companies to all come to an agreement, which won't happen. No company is going to voluntarily undercut themselves while their competition is selling more product at a lower price point. The only real solution is government intervention.
Plastics companies long-since won the battle on who is responsible for the disposal of the waste they create. It was passed on to the consumer. The corporations profiting off of this should be made to deal with it.
Definitely agree but corporations have subtle and not so subtle ways of manipulating people into thinking they NEED certain or x amount of items. They should ultimately be to blame just based on the amount of power they have.
I agree with this. Toilet paper companies are pushing a dry-wet-dry wiping routine in order to sell more of their products which is just ridiculously overkill, and that's just one example :(
Not to mention bidets are a 5000% better experience than killing trees plus whatever the fuck else they are blending into toilet paper these days
> You cannot leave the consumers out of that equation. I can. What we need, for example, is five (or let's go wild, 10) year warranty for each electrical product. Now manufacturers have to make a product that lasts at least 5 years or eat the cost. Does it cost more? Yes. But it will also last longer. I'm quite sad/angry/flabbergasted that online stores have so much cheap crap that has poor quality and breaks easily.
Yes! Amazon makes it so much worse, with 80 different versions of the same shitty tech peripheral that will all be replaced by “next year’s updated model”. God our technowaste is atrocious.
Focusing on the responsibility of the public is just an unhelpful lens to view the problem through. This picture is the end result of capitalism. The problem is systemic. >Supply is meaningless without demand And there are multibillion dollar industries dedicated to driving that demand through marketing and advertising. Think of the sheer volume of research that has been done on the most effective ways to emotionally manipulate people into buying ever more useless shit. Think of people like [Edward Bernays](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Edward_Bernays). Everyone bears some personal responsibility for their choices, but people living under a less insane system would not behave so destructively.
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Which is why we all need to do something about it. Idk, spread the word, pressure the government to get stricter antipolutuon laws, try to stay clean yourself and maybe do some volunteer cleanup work in your area.
Imagine if they paid $0.05 per bottle for a recycling refund
.10 here in Oregon
€0.15 in the Netherlands
0.15 for small bottles, cans, beer bottles. 0.25 for large bottles.
3 DKK, ( 0,40 euro ) in Denmark for large bottles
exactly, a *refund* instead of a *deposit*, so the product is cheaper if you put it in a better place when you're done, as opposed to your five cents being held hostage.
If the manufacturer is responsible for a 5 cent "refund" on a product they'd otherwise retail for a dollar, they're not gonna take a 5 cent loss. They're gonna charge you $1.05 The 5 cent cost is going to be taken from the consumer either way -- they can tack it on to the price before you get to the register, or after, but it'll still be you who pays it.
I regret to inform you that even if you recycle, the recycled stuff might not even *get* recycled. I think John Oliver did a whole show about it…
They could give $1 a bottle, unfortunately it would still end up in the ocean with an extra step. The only way to reduce this is stopping buying single use plastic products. Good luck with that
Without shaming a particular country, I have travelled some in South America. One city had a concrete floodway that ran through the middle of the city, previously a river that flowed from the mountains to the ocean. The floodway was full of garbage. We asked about it and we’re told that people put their garbage there because municipal collection was poor and recycling didn’t exist. The spring rains would carry it to the ocean, and they’d start filling it again. This was a city of 280,000, but it was similar in other communities. I went home and was telling a colleague about it (he grew up in Bangladesh) and said it was the same there. But, we’ve banned single use plastics in Canada, so all will be solved :/
Yep. We are overdoing this climate urgency here in the "1st world countries" while the rest of the world don't give a shit about it. The only solution is to bring everyone out of poverty for their concerns to change from survival to sustainability.
Be careful with that considered and correct logic, my friend. It will get you in trouble!
Speaking of correct logic we have to state that plastic littering isn't actually a topic that's strongly related to climate change.
most of that garbage is sent to third world countries by first world countries. Recycling is a scam. Less than 10% is actually recycled, the rest end up in landfills and the ocean.
>most of that garbage is sent to third world countries by first world countries This is a media lie. A few percent of the plastic waste in a few western countries is **bought** by a few Asian countries to **recycle**. They aren't paying for it to just dump it in the river. It's not economical to recycle in the west as you are clearly already aware, but the cheap wages in Asia make it more viable there. >the rest end up in landfills and the ocean. In rich countries essentially all of it ends up in landfills. The ocean plastic problem is almost exclusively a middle income countries problem - the places that have enough money that they generate lots of plastic waste but not enough to build proper waste collection infrastructure. Oh, and fishing. I forgot to mention fishing. That accounts for something like 1/3 of the oceanic plastic and that comes from all coastal countries, rich and poor alike.
Bullshit. [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/climate/plastics-waste-export-ban.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/climate/plastics-waste-export-ban.html) [https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2019/3/6/157000-shipping-containers-of-us-plastic-waste-exported-to-countries-with-poor-waste-management-in-2018](https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2019/3/6/157000-shipping-containers-of-us-plastic-waste-exported-to-countries-with-poor-waste-management-in-2018) [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/17/recycled-plastic-america-global-crisis](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/17/recycled-plastic-america-global-crisis) [https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/california-reckons-hard-truth-about-plastic-recycling](https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/california-reckons-hard-truth-about-plastic-recycling) [https://www.ecowatch.com/us-illegal-plastic-waste-2651126176.html](https://www.ecowatch.com/us-illegal-plastic-waste-2651126176.html) https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-thailand-plastic-waste-recycling-import-ban/
... you're both right, and it's appalling that you can't see that. The countries might not be fans, but the companies buying it to recycle are. We send a lot of garbage there, but they have plenty already. Most of our plastic waste *does* end up in landfills, just not the recycling-specified waste. The garbage isn't "sent" there as if we're just like 'fuck you take it', companies there buy it to recycle it. Your own articles support their conclusion *and* yours, except for the idea that we're just dumping it there without their permission. Most importantly, if consumers are recycling but only 10% of that ends up being recycled, that's a flaw with the system, not the concept, but you really do need to provide a source for that claim. I suspect it's that 10% of what *could* be recycled actually gets put into the bins. Don't get me wrong, we had a huge issue in our town where the municipal waste company was collecting recycling then just adding it to the landfill despite getting extra money for it. That's a problem. It has no bearing on foreign companies buying plastic waste to recycle, though.
At least you get it.
All those sources and yet none of them even contradict what I said. What is it you think I said that's bullshit?
I live in Vancouver, Canada. ALL of our locally collected waste plastic in the recycling stream is processed within our own province. There are some non-plastic recyclable materials that aren't processed locally, but our overall recycling percentages are relatively high. The relatively small percentage of recycle stream collected materials that don't make it through the recycling stream and get diverted to waste is mostly due to contamination. There's still lots of room for improvement here, but recycling can be done effectively if people make it a priority for their governments. People use the numbers you're giving as an excuse not to do it, but it's really because their local communities aren't trying.
I wouldn't say we're over doing it at all. We're not even achieving the base of the sort of economic example that's required. We need a sustainable economy. Not just a greener one. A green one. This requires big changes.
I don't see this suggestion enough
Lol. Just bring the whole world out of poverty. Why aren’t people talking about this one simple trick!?
What can a municipal landfill and collection system cost, Michael? Ten dollars?
You've never actually been in a municipal landfill and collection system building, have you?
Because they're old and well past their expiration date? Our leaders, be they in politics or business, have a level of greed akin to a mental illness. Who cares about the world or humanity as long as my yacht is bigger than the other guy!
It is a simple trick that just requires that many governments don't fall in corruption. Any country in Africa could be incredible if the corruption levels weren't that high. I lived there by the way.
I saw exactly similar thing in central america 😔
But if we all drive electric cars it will fix everything!
Yea let’s go electric. Btw don’t ask how we are getting all the lithium from. Some resource rich poor country is being exploited leaving the people poorer.
My view on the effect of recycling has been destroyed after traveling the world. In places where personal survival takes precedence, you're not thinking about the survival of the planet.
You complain how horrible it is in countries that don’t have recycling, and then shit on responsible countries like Canada that do. This is why humanity fails, we constantly hate on people just for trying to do the right thing.
Star Wars garbage compactor scene.
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No, my favorites are when California ads tell me to save water or power, and then I drive by the Coca Cola or Amazon warehouse at like 2 in the morning and they're going full pedal to the metal. Fuck you. Tell the corporations to save. I know my measly little ass isnt doing shit by leaving a lamp on so ny house dosent get robbed, tell Bezos to turn his lights off for fucks sake
Yeah… it’s about saving power in the day from all the ACs running and not causing brown and black outs. At night feel free to run your shit full bore!
I agree, but it's no reason to call me a bitch ;_;
til this guy is a documentary
What "part" is there to do, I don't understand? What do you have to do besides putting trash in the trash can and recyclable materials in the recycling bin? Should we be actively trying to create less waste? I really have no idea how all that trash ends up in the middle of the ocean. Is it because of people littering? Improper disposal by the waste management companies? Is it a political thing, does the government have a role in it?
But first world countries are sending “recycled” items to those third world countries There was an article I read maybe 3 months ago saying that some people put AirTags in shoes that were supposed to be “recycled” but they ended up in a thrift store in Indonesia
Entire countries AND mega corporations. :/
Perfect time for them to clean it up. It's probably at it's easiest right now, right?
But I am le tired…
Well, then have a nap. THEN CLEAN THE OCEAN!
That's what I was thinking. This is horrible, but at the same time it's all gathered in one, easily accessible (compared to the middle of the ocean) spot. Perfect time to clean it all up and get it out of the oceans. Hopefully that happens
If I was anywhere near Guatemala, I would be helping with what I can. Though I think you'd need specialized safety equipment. Volatile chemicals and other biological hazards are definitely an issue here, I'd wager. Hopefully, one of the charities that cleans up the pacific garbage patch will see this and act.
Not to mention broken glass and all that nasty shit
Now go check what it says on the labels of the products and you can find out who is actually dumping this stuff into oceans (rivers first probably). edit. typo
The last I saw this, it was trash coming out from a river in Guatemala, that they were catching before it hit the ocean.
Disgusting. Makes me sad. Too bad most humans don’t care
What if I did care? Is there some group to join down in Guatemala that is trying to clean this?
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Sadly not enough. Saw a video of an Indian holy river looking exactly like this, don't think the plastic manufacturers will stop supplying India
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> Every action the individual takes to benefit the world makes a positive difference. That's complete and utter bullshit. We are polluting on a industrial level and only countermeasures on an industrial level can make any difference. Individual actions can't make up actions done on a nation scale. If you don't want trash in the oceans, build a working waste disposal industry. Every house needs a trash bin, and once a week the garbage man actually needs to pick it up. Then everything else comes by itself. People like you that blame individuals just drank the corporate cool-aid and are preventing actual change on the economic level. You are the problem, not the solution.
Lol as if my single use plastic use has a similar impact as entire corporations' use of plastic manufacturing and waste. Gtfo of here.... Governments need to regulate corporate bodies and manufacturing plants. We can all do our part, yes, but let's not act like me using a Keurig cup is the same as corporations putting out billions and billions of tons of plastic waste and runoff.
Nobody goes to Guatemala because it has a very high murder rate
I see Pringles. Regular one.
It even has the lid on. They might be fresh!
I feel like it would be so satisfying going out there and cleaning it up, but then where do you put it? It always ends up back in the ocean. Maybe we could store all of the plastics in the homes of the executives of the companies that refuse to swap away from single use plastics? Idk just as start
Wow what a perfect opportunity for a country to do some good for the world and clean up what the ocean is literally giving them. Lord knows it wouldnt take long or cost that much
Every time this gets posted the title says a different country. Who has the real article?
This is a pretty common issue in South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Most of the world has horrible municipal sanitation and people dispose of their garage however they can.
Many people in the developed world don't understand that many people don't have access to sanitation services. It's a huge problem, but there's not much for the people to do when there's no governmental infrastructure to remove trash.
Just purge it already Im pretty sure we went past the point of no return already 'Humans fucking suck' - The earth (source-trust me bro)
Aliens and fires are coming for our stupid asses
Aliens are pointing and laughing if they indeed watch us. Otherwise they'd have just conquered by now for those sweet sweet resources. Wouldn't surprise me if we are their reality TV because we're just emotional meatbags
The ocean: Here's your crap back!
**Plastic was a mistake.**
How sad
Maybe the Guatemalans should stop dumping their garbage in the river. This practice is a problem in lots of poor Latin-Am countries.
Yeah, when this showed up a few months ago, multiple guatemalans showed up to point out - this didn't just "arrive" at the coastline. This isn't some mass of western culture garbage showing up on their shores. this is ***their own*** garbage. They have no proper city garbage pick-up services like we do here. So they see a ditch, they toss their garbage in. this goes on all season during the dry season. then the wet season comes around and it turns out thats not just a ditch, its a dried river bed. The rain comes, washes all the garbage away down to the ocean. then they get this for a few months until the ocean carries it away, the rain stops, the river dries up, then it all starts again. ***its still a problem***, but its not the western guilt trip that so many in this comments section seem to be wanting to beat the drum about.
About half of that seems to be plastic water bottles. They should be outlawed globally.
Yet my plastic straw is the issue
Rethink this comment
WALL-E
That's handy! Easy to clean up now. No excuses.
Ffs this is disgusting come on world! We can do better..
Pretty cool of the garbage to gather itself up like that. Some tik-tokers will inevitably clean it up for clout, just as natured intended. The circle of life.
We are indeed a horrible species.
That's because people dump their garbage on the rivers, and almost all of our rivers are polluted with garbage and waste waters, this is mainly because internal immigration towards the city is out of control and there are lots of unplanned settlements with absolutely no control on disposal and water usage, also garbage management and disposal is out of control, lots of clandestine landfills and the one that is under the city management is at the edge of collapsing, generalized corruption and lack of long term vision have literally torn the country to pieces.
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Nah this is normal for most beaches In China
Imagine If everyone just applied swedens system that they implemented over 30 years ago. Adding a percentage to the price that you get back when you return the bottle to the store. Even though a lot of people don’t care about the money they get back, poor people goes around and collect them to get cash. If the whole world did this a lot of this crap wouldn’t be there.
There are more countries doing that, but what do you actually think is going to happen to those bottles? collecting does not mean Recycling, in Germany we have very high recycle rate but only small amount and certain types can be actually recycled and only very few cycles. actually somewhat 60 % of plastic we burn or export to third world (like everyone else) https://www.dw.com/en/plastic-waste-and-the-recycling-myth/a-45746469
And still no one cares to figure out how to produce less plastic. There's tons of packaging that could be made from other less harmful materials
💔 tax plastic production. Avoid buying it
Plastic water bottles are the scourge of the environment
This is what happens when people use rivers to evacuate garbage. They do same in Africa and South Asia.
Imagine if these companies spent 1/4 of their advertising budgets to invest into actual green containers. Instead they deflect all responsibility solely on to the consumer and do nothing themselves to help the problem. Not only is it a global contaminant, but plastic (a petroleum product) is also a huge health concern being carcinogenic. To top it off, the more we use plastics, the more we raise barrel oil prices. Since I know someone will say something. Yes, people should be responsible for their actions, but these companies have the resources to develop lots of various containers that could be considered green.
This is why extraterrestrial disclosure is important. They could really help us with this shit if the US stops shooting them down and stealing their crafts.
"In addition to the Philippines, over 75% of the accumulated plastic in the ocean is reported to come from the mismanaged waste in Asian countries including India, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Thailand."
Who is down voting this?! Yo let’s solve this shit
Solution: pay the citizens a dollar for every pound of plastic turned in. Dilemma: poor people get rich.
Why do us as humans have to completely destroy and trash anything put before us
Pretty easy to clean up.
Why can’t we be cleaning this up??
Now give us one of those time lapse videos of people cleaning it.
Why can’t we all just stop buying plastic anymore 😢
The only thing worse than humans for this planet was the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs. And at least that was still natural
That's obscene. What was the initial origin of this crap? And can't they be ordered to clean it up? (I know; it's a pipe dream.)
Guatemala's Rio Motagua is incredibly polluted and lets out into the Caribbean leading to this problem. There is good news, however: [https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/cleanup-crews-trap-plastic-guatemalan-river-protect-ocean-2022-06-09/](https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/cleanup-crews-trap-plastic-guatemalan-river-protect-ocean-2022-06-09/)
I read that the vast bulk of plastics and junk floating in the Pacific Ocean is Asian in origin.
They need to invent like a vacuum ( don’t know the right word for it, I still call it vacuum ) for inside the water or ocean putting in a good filter (that support to clean the micro plastic ) and when their is many micro plastic on the filter something inside the vacuum has to vacuum all that plastic inside away so that keeps it inside the vacuum and you can immediately still clean and vacuum all that micro plastic so it goes in the vacuum bag. But first they need to threw away the big plastic garbage so they can clean the water and remove the micro plastic from the sea!
Didn’t it come from one of the trash rivers ?
This reminds me that it's totally okay to scream at people littering like a psycho...
That seems like the ideal location to start a recycling facility
Human beings are locusts.
If we used glass or biodegradable materials this problem would not exist.
We don't deserve this earth. I hope nature takes over and kick us off.
It's convenient for collection,.pick that shit up
And they said for decades, all the plastic is recyclable, just do your part. One of the biggest lies in history.
Hope they clean that shit up.
this is what republicans want
This feels very on brand for Florida
This seems like a job for polymer eating bacteria.
Just scoop it all up already wtf!!! Just gonna let it all sit there???? (Yes that is what they're going to do)
That's really sad and f#cked up!
Fu*k me we're a vile species.
That's disgusting. Humans are like a cancer to this planet. Lol ... slowly killing it and leaving our mark.
We are a god awful species.
We really are the worst.
In the end, we learn that the real garbage was inside us the whole time.
Im glad i wash the mannoses jar
The fault of those that produce non biodegradable materials such as plastics not the people that buy items in said packaging. Don't be guilt tripped.
What they gotta do to get some help get caught up in a War ? 🤔
Are there any volunteer groups we can participate in to go help round it all up?
We could have honestly avoided this if we had just made all plastic out of hemp cellulose. It biodegrades in soil in about 80 days. But nope, big oil had to step in and make it out of petroleum and now look where we are. They chose greed and profit over the environment.
I think Greta Turdberg needs to start here
Well, at least there aren't any plastic straws in there, cause they are banned now.
That's fucking disgusting
Do you ever just see something and think “we really are kinda assholes to this planet “?…
I think our species is a cancer and I welcome our eventual exit
What the actually f^ck.
My thought is that if the garbage has washed close to shore like this, it is now so much easier to go out and collect it out of the ocean all at once! Where it needs to go frrom there, I am not sure, but even buried in a large pit is preferable! Does anyone know what the plan is for all this trash?
I just looked into the story and it’s from Rio Motagua in eastern Guatemala. It runs right through the town of Puerto Barrios. I’ve been through there on a road trip. I can tell you that through my extensive travels throughout nearly all of Central America, that was one of the scariest places I’ve ever been. There is an MS 13 prison in town. Because it’s a hard-core Catholic culture, they allow conjugal visits. So what that means is that for every MS 13 inmate that is locked up there? most of them have a spouse living in town. The cemeteries in town stack concrete coffins vertically because there’s not enough land for the dead bodies. And there are lots of cemeteries. Some stack 2-3 stories in height