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Plastic waste gonemad - everybody do one thing now,!

24

Comments

  • #32
    Thelonious Monk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,513 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    risteard7 wrote: »
    It's just the cool Hipster trend atm, it'll go away shortly. The same with Veganism

    Should you not be commenting on the Journal you f*cking moron?


  • #33
    AllForIt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭AllForIt


    Alf Veedersane wrote: »
    The worst example of the nonsense is a hotel café supplying individually-wrapped sugar cubes with a cup of tea or coffee. Madness.

    I would say it's done for hygiene reasons though.


  • #34
    Still waters
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,164 ✭✭✭Still waters


    People can't change if the only thing available to them is plastic, what do you think the ordinary joe/Josephine soap are going to do if they want to stop buying plastic, its virtually impossible to buy a product in the supermarket without some form of packaging, i hate waste but if i need 2 litres of milk, a packet of ham or a sliced pan i have no other option but to buy plastic, change needs to happen at a legislative stage where the government outlaw all unnecessary plastic


  • #35
    Alf Veedersane
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,947 ✭✭✭✭Alf Veedersane


    AllForIt wrote: »
    I would say it's done for hygiene reasons though.

    All of the bajillion other places without individually wrapped sugar cubes manage just fine though.


  • #36
    smelly sock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,820 ✭✭✭smelly sock


    Alternatives to plastic usually cost more. So fook that


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  • #37
    Thelonious Monk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,513 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    Still waters wrote: »
    People can't change if the only thing available to them is plastic, what do you think the ordinary joe/Josephine soap are going to do if they want to stop buying plastic, its virtually impossible to buy a product in the supermarket without some form of packaging, i hate waste but if i need 2 litres of milk, a packet of ham or a sliced pan i have no other option but to buy plastic, change needs to happen at a legislative stage where the government outlaw all unnecessary plastic

    It's bigger than that though, consumers have to take some responsibility. If we all stopped buying convenience foods and prepared lunches at home etc etc we'd use far less plastic, although some of it is unavoidable.
    I think products should have to meet some kind of standards to decide whether they are allowed on the market or not.
    Do we need another energy drink in a plastic bottle on the market? Or do we need sliced apples in plastic?
    The fact people are encouraged to flood the market with rubbish we don't need is part of the problem.
    This won't happen because it goes against economics, but the reality is our lifestyles are about as destructive to the environment as you can get and massive changes would be required to clean up the Earth.


  • #38
    AllForIt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,852 ✭✭✭AllForIt


    Alf Veedersane wrote: »
    All of the bajillion other places without individually wrapped sugar cubes manage just fine though.

    The 'hygiene' isn't for the sugar silly lol


  • #39
    Alf Veedersane
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,947 ✭✭✭✭Alf Veedersane


    AllForIt wrote: »
    The 'hygiene' isn't for the sugar silly lol

    I never said it was for anything, silly lol.

    I said the places without individually wrapped cubes manage just fine.


  • #40
    Harry Palmr
    Closed Accounts Posts: 40,059 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    Every time I do a blood test I have to open an individually wrapped strip which is made of tinfoil. The strips come in runs of 5 x 10 per pack that 10 is kept together with a very thin plastic sheath which is clearly not recyclable. Oh yes all this is of course packaged inside a cardboard box - so what the feck is the use once plastic for? Why is it there?!

    My previous system (now ended) had no such waste.

    We seem to be going in the wrong direction despite what we know.


  • #41
    smelly sock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,820 ✭✭✭smelly sock


    I buy at least 6 x 500ml bottles of water a day.


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  • #42
    Thelonious Monk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,513 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    smelly sock wrote: »
    I buy at least 6 x 500ml bottles of water a day.

    Well done. Maybe find a thread on veganism so you can post mmm bacon etc?


  • #43
    Harry Palmr
    Closed Accounts Posts: 40,059 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    smelly sock wrote: »
    I buy at least 6 x 500ml bottles of water a day.

    One tap is much cheaper.


  • #44
    smelly sock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,820 ✭✭✭smelly sock


    Harry Palmr wrote: »
    One tap is much cheaper.

    Ah its not breaking the bank. 6 bottles in lodl for 1.30


  • #45
    Harry Palmr
    Closed Accounts Posts: 40,059 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    Why are you buying water at all though?


  • #46
    smelly sock
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,820 ✭✭✭smelly sock


    Harry Palmr wrote: »
    Why are you buying water at all though?

    To drink. Sparkling water.


  • #47
    Redneck Reject71
    Closed Accounts Posts: 586 ✭✭✭Redneck Reject71


    A lot of plastics that have some sort or coloring can't be recycled for whatever reason. So the facilities need to do more research onto being able to recycle them. And also is weird is the paper straws places like McDonalds offer can't presently be recycled either. That was stated in a company memo.


  • #48
    BillyBird
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 143 ✭✭BillyBird


    the_pen_turner wrote: »
    it would go a long way if the governemnt just banned all unneccisery plastic . make it so you have to justify its use.
    i hve no problem using plastic when its required and the best material for its job.
    the problem is unneccisery plastic. . everything is wraped several times for no reason.


    You're talking waste reduction at source. And yes, that's the only way to go, this idea that consumers can deal with this is nonsense, if everything in the supermarket/cafe comes in plastic the consumer has little choice. Recycling is never going to be as good as, for example, just not putting the bananas in a plastic bag in the first place.



    It's been floated once already, didn't get the required support, hopefully this term around or, failing that, the EU will save us from ourselves.


  • #49
    Day Lewin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,039 ✭✭✭Day Lewin


    Bottles and packets are small.

    Look around at the amount of plastic that is BIG:
    every bit of furniture on a train or bus or aeroplane.
    All the flooring.
    All the foam and fabric on all those sofas. All the fittings in kitchens and schools.

    Look along the shelves at a large hardware store, W00deez or Ykeyea. Look at the cash registers and displays.
    The clothing and footwear on every member of every crowd, with only a few scraps of wool, cotton and leather holding out for the sake of renewable and bio-degradable.

    We're all doomed.
    I've stopped buying stuff. Clothing all second-hand. But I can't stop buying food - not being a farmer, and we have to eat.
    And shoes are a problem.

    Rally round, boys, this is about to get very serious very soon.


    PS I'm not ignoring the small stuff either, though.
    When I think of ...
    every toothbrush I've ever used.
    Every biro and marker and fountain pen.
    Every comb, every cigarette lighter....every roll-on deodorant bottle...
    all still lying in the dump for centuries to come. Multiply that by the number of citizens in Dublin...
    I just shudder.


  • #50
    Always Tired
    Closed Accounts Posts: 945 ✭✭✭Always Tired


    Xwebstar2. wrote: »
    When they're forced to make it recyclable

    And when are we all going to take responsibility for all the waste and cut back and stop sending all our crap to Malaysia and other backwaters

    Some fella was on rte tues nite saying the malaysia stuff wasnt ours, we are recycling the vast majority of our plastic, some here, most in other European facilities.

    We should still cut back a lot of course.


  • #51
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 15,055 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Day Lewin wrote: »
    Bottles and packets are small.




    People tend to have an issue with 'single use' plastics, rather than plastic in general.


    Ikea making their tills out of plastic seems fine with me, as the till will probably last 10 years of regular use before being binned. The same amount of plastic to make the til is probably being put into the bin beside the till every 20 minutes.


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  • #52
    emo72
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,540 ✭✭✭emo72


    Every Apple I eat comes with a sticker on it. Pink Lady, I know what you are, it says it on the other plastic ****e you come wrapped in. I don't need or want a sticker on every Apple. What spawn of Satan marketing prick came up with that idea? Your going to hell.


  • #53
    Graces7
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Alf Veedersane wrote: »
    The worst example of the nonsense is a hotel café supplying individually-wrapped sugar cubes with a cup of tea or coffee. Madness.

    Safe hygiene. If loose in a bowl can be breathed over etc. And surely paper?


  • #54
    Graces7
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    re milk; I keep the plastic cartons, cut the top off just over the handle, use the bottom part as plantpots and the top part makes it a mini greenhouse .

    Tins( cat food etc) get crushed and to the bottle/tin bank

    Cardboard goes atop grassy places I need to use for vegetables as mulch.


  • #55
    Thelonious Monk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,513 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    Always Tired wrote: »
    Some fella was on rte tues nite saying the malaysia stuff wasnt ours, we are recycling the vast majority of our plastic, some here, most in other European facilities.

    We should still cut back a lot of course.

    I'm pretty sure we've never recycled any domestic plastic waste here in Ireland.


  • #56
    Day Lewin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,039 ✭✭✭Day Lewin


    Deleted User wrote: »
    People tend to have an issue with 'single use' plastics, rather than plastic in general.


    Ikea making their tills out of plastic seems fine with me, as the till will probably last 10 years of regular use before being binned. The same amount of plastic to make the til is probably being put into the bin beside the till every 20 minutes.

    Better, but it still does get binned.
    "Binned" is not "disappeared forever" - it's just gone someplace else.


  • #57
    Day Lewin
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,039 ✭✭✭Day Lewin


    Thelonious Monk wrote: »
    I'm pretty sure we've never recycled any domestic plastic waste here in Ireland.

    As far as I know, some plastic waste does: (not a whole lot).

    I've heard that Thorntons granulate it and re-form; into, eg, posts, sewer pipes (a guess)
    (most who collect "recycling" do NOT re-cycle, but use the material as fuel or hardcore, etc.

    But always into poorer quality, a process that cannot be repeated indefinitely.

    BTW, I'm open to correction on these facts, my knowledge is not technical though I'm very committed to these issues.


  • #58
    Lurching
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,241 ✭✭✭Lurching


    Alf Veedersane wrote: »
    But you won't throw it on the ground but you'll put it in a bin and it will likely be landfilled.

    There are a lot of these 'compostable' materials on the market aren't as great as they make out...the time taken to fully decompose. If they end up a composting facility, yeah they can decompose in 3 months. If you drop then on the ground or throw them on a compost heap at home, it will take more than a year.

    Biodegradable is largely meaningless.

    :confused: Fantastic if this stuff does go to landfill, even if it takes a year to decompose.

    You say biodegradable is meaningless - if a landfill was full of normal plastic, none would have biodegraded within the first 25 years, whereas if the same landfill had been filled with the biodegradable alternative, there would be very little left.


  • #59
    Alf Veedersane
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,947 ✭✭✭✭Alf Veedersane


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
    Day Lewin wrote: »
    As far as I know, some plastic waste does: (not a whole lot).

    I've heard that Thorntons granulate it and re-form; into, eg, posts, sewer pipes (a guess)
    (most who collect "recycling" do NOT re-cycle, but use the material as fuel or hardcore, etc.

    But always into poorer quality, a process that cannot be repeated indefinitely.

    BTW, I'm open to correction on these facts, my knowledge is not technical though I'm very committed to these issues.

    I don't know that they granulate plastics and re-form it but they do take a lot of material and use it to produce a high quality fuel (well, meets moisture content and calorific value specifications...possibly others) for use in cement kilns.

    The EPA had a study into the actual recycling of different materials in Ireland and there didn't appear to be the economies of scale for a sustainable business. But that was maybe 15 years ago


  • #60
    Alf Veedersane
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,947 ✭✭✭✭Alf Veedersane


    Lurching wrote: »
    :confused: Fantastic if this stuff does go to landfill, even if it takes a year to decompose.

    You say biodegradable is meaningless - if a landfill was full of normal plastic, none would have biodegraded within the first 25 years, whereas if the same landfill had been filled with the biodegradable alternative, there would be very little left.

    In the context of what can be said to be biodegradable, it can be a lot longer than 25 years.

    And after 25 years, the landfill cell will have been closed/capped. There won't be a void or empty cell.


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  • #61
    fineso.mom
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,095 ✭✭✭fineso.mom


    Graces7 wrote: »
    re milk; I keep the plastic cartons, cut the top off just over the handle, use the bottom part as plantpots and the top part makes it a mini greenhouse .

    Tins( cat food etc) get crushed and to the bottle/tin bank

    Cardboard goes atop grassy places I need to use for vegetables as mulch.

    Does the island have a bottle bank? Or does somebody collect it from you? I've wondered this before about smaller islands and waste management.


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