The question sounds hyper stupid but hear me out.
We have an underwhelming volume of shit that relies on plastic. Plastic is cheap and versatile. If we replaced the vast majority of it, I presume costs for most products would creep up, and we would also shift our demand for natural resources (such as wood for paper ). Are there enough resources to sustainably replace our current volume of single use plastics? Or would we be sentencing all of our remaining forests to extinction if we did? Would products remain roughly equally affordable?
Let’s imagine we replace, overnight, all single use plastic in this hypothetical scenario with an alternative. All parcels are now mailed in paper; waxed paper if you need humidity resistance. Styrofoam pebbles are now paper shreds and cardboard clusters. No more plastic film, anywhere. No more plastic bags, only paper. No more plastic wrapping for any cookies confectionery, etc; it’s paper and thin boxes like those of cereals. Toothbrushes, pens, and a variety of miscellaneous items are now made of wood, cardboard, glass, metal, etc. The list goes on, but you get the idea.
Is this actually doable? Or is there another reason besides plastic companies not wanting to run out of business that we haven’t done this already? Why are we still using so much fucking plastic?
The real trick to make this better is moving away from a consumerist mindset. Which isnt really possible in capitalism at its current stage.
And a small part of that I think is realizing that a ton of stuff we use plastic for is totally unnecessary. How many times have you opened something and thought “fuck that’s a lot of plastic?”
To me it’s unbearably frustrating how much companies use plastic.
OK, with what would you replace the materials of LEGO bricks?
This is not a trick question, but one that LEGO has already spent millions on research on. They found an oil-free alternative to the soft plastic used for leaves and other plant parts, but are stuck on other types of plastic they use.
Okay we can make an exception for LEGOs… But it’s illegal to dump them as regular trash!
I don’t know if this is common, but in my family Legos are a common gift for children, and they never get thrown away. When kids age out (usually because they move out or go to uni) the bricks get tossed in a big mixed bag and handed down to the next round of youngsters. After at least 3 generations of this, the kids now inherit literal full sized trash barrels of mixed Lego. It’s awesome!
When it was my turn I got a big bucket, but two of my cousins got all of the Technic stuff, I was very jealous.
In the beginning, things would suck, because low prices come from economies of scale, and the petrochemical industry certainly has scale. Once you’ve ramped up glass, paper and metal packaging factories, it should be tolerable.
There are also new materials such as biodegradable plastic and even mycelia. That would be useful.
If we also ramp up various carbon capture technologies, you could technically turn that carbon into plastics, so you won’t need any more oil. Obviously, that wouldn’t solve the climate crisis. You need CCS for that. Probably not going to happen within the next century, but it’s technically possible.
biodegradable plastic
Pretty sure that is bullshit just like how ‘easy’ plastic is to recycle.
A big issue is the single use. Why do you need a plastic wrapping in the cookies ? if you get cookies at your local bakery, and give them your own bag, they’ll put-it inside, no problem.
Note also, that a lot of things are already ongoing to ban single-use plastic. I am old enough to remember the late 90’s early 00’s when you would get a plastic bag from any shop, these have been outlawed a while ago and nobody miss them
An oft-overlooked part of this is the fact that it is also a socioeconomic issue. Due to half a century of wage suppression, the diminished purchasing power of the majority of the population would not be able to handle the shift to more durable goods. Wealth/income inequality is a major hurdle for reducing single use plastics and disposable goods.
Ah. Nobody can afford un-enshittified products anymore.
It’s progressive invisible poverty.
Exactly. The actual cost of durable goods tend to be pretty consistent, when corrected for inflation. It’s just that wages are so terrible compared to what they should be, if they were not completely divorced from the value created by labor.
Soda steam (and similar products) have likely saved a lot of plastic bottles from being purchased. This product doesn’t save money, I think it’ll should work out to the same costs for anyone that drinks a lot of bubbly drinks.
I’d have switched years ago if I could get the economy of scale that a restaurant does
It’s doable. The world existed and functioned without plastic.
You would see glass for bottles, etc. We would adapt and be fine
The world existed and functioned without plastic.
This isn’t a good argument. The world existed and functioned without cars, computers, phones, electricity, etc - doesn’t mean it’s viable in the current time.
viable in the current time.
That is just a way of saying don’t change anything.
20 years ago:
"We need to stop using paper bags! They’re cutting down all the trees!” (a renewable resource)
"We should use plastic bags instead! They’re recyclable!” (so is paper, and it’s far more economically viable, but plastic is made from petroleum)
So now we use plastic bags made of a much heavier material, so we can reuse them, or cloth bags for a similar reason.
Cloth bags are made from cotton, like paper is made from trees.
