Those numbers can be a bit misleading in the sense that we here in the West often offshored our plastic waste (through fake recycling) to countries like India to dispose of.
I absolutely despise drinks that come in plastic containers. Even if I use a straw, it doesn’t taste the same. I have to remove it completely from the container. I would love it if they went back to glass.
How do you not buy plastic? How do you cut back if just about everything comes in plastic?
I’m all for cutting out plastic where there is a better alternative. Like glass where possible. But for stuff like straws or single use plastic bags, I have to continue buying them. The alternatives don’t cut it.
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I dont use straws but we do have a couple which are reusable plastic straws. My water bottle is not plastic but I agree with you, drinks in glass taste so much better and its difficult to do that all the time.
Who knew beer drinkers were conservationists? Aluminum and glass.
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I don’t know about beer cans, but cans of coke have a plastic liner.
I traded in all of my plastic gym bottles for metal ones a few years ago, and I got rid of all the plastic leftover containers and replaced them with Pyrex. I still feel completely inundated with plastic. I think we are way past the point of no return.
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Interesting article on Microplastics
LONDON, England —
Microplastics have been found in historic soil samples for the first time, according to a new study, potentially upending the way archaeological remains are preserved.
Researchers found microplastics in soil deposits more than seven meters (23 feet) underground, which were deposited in the first or second century CE and excavated in the 1980s, a team led by researchers from the University of York in the United Kingdom said in a statement published Friday.
In total, the study identified 16 different microplastic polymer types in contemporary and archived soil samples, the statement adds.
They don’t really say… Are these m’plastics migrating 25 feet down into the soil? If not, then how do they get there? And if it’s migration, why aren’t other contaminants getting down there? Today they (say they) can carbon date that soil and analyze it for environmental contents of the period. But if stuff can wash into it, how true is any analysis they do?
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All relevant questions. None of which I have the answer to 
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This is true.
My pet peeve is not with plastic, but it’s overuse.
When I buy a dress shirt, for example, I don’t need umpteen sheets of plastic to keep it in a “pristine shape” when it’s folded…that’s such a waste and done only for display purposes in a store.
I can think of a bunch of other cases where they overuse plastic in the packaging of goods (the shirt thingie is one of my biggest gripes, though, if only because of how long it takes to get rid of all that ■■■■ when one gets the shirt home).
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Then you have stuff like this. Some plastic packaging is tough to open. So they make nice cutters to open those packages – and they package the cutter in the same packaging the cutter was marketed to address:
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But yes. Most stuff you buy in the grocery store is packaged in plastic of one sort or another. Produce in hard shell plastic (or loose produce you put into plastic produce bags), meat in plastic wrap. Milk in plastic jugs. Soda, juice, condiments … Most stuff is in plastic.
But then you check out, and none of that plastic-packaged stuff can go into plastic shopping bags any more.
And in many states, plastic to-go packaging has been banned. So what replaces it? Styrofoam.
But it keeps the shirt clean.
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The ones that get stored in plastic bags? I don’t mind the bags.
I’m talking about those stupid inserts in the collar and between the folds, etc…and the gazillion pins to keep all of it in place to boot.
Yup. Last shirt I bought had 18 pins, plus all the other stuff
This had me confused as well.
It smacks of a climate-change sky-is-falling panic.
Or maybe they actually had plastics 28 centuries ago and archaeologists have discovered that.
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I bought something like 1500 plastic single use bags on Amazon for around 20 bucks. I think it’s even cheaper now.
