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Venousek

Listed below are comments made by Venousek between Sunday, 3rd August 2008 and Saturday, 30th August 2008.

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Top tips from plastic-free bloggers 6:57pm on 30 Aug 2008 It seems to me that we are paranoid about plastics. We want to get rid of them. Why? Just for the sake of getting rid of plastics or is there some higher reason? What is it?
Reducing volume of landfill: Plastics constitute a small fraction of landfill volume, the largest constituent is paper. Substituting paper for plastics increases the volume. True, paper is biodegradable but unless it finds its way into a composting facility the biodegradability is no good; unstable landfill, release of methane and leachate are serious problems. I am swamped with paper I did not solicit or need. It comes with my mail, with the newspaper and is left on my doorstep. If we reduced this excess we would liberate more room in the landfill than we would by removing all plastics. Are we doing something about that? From reading the mail we ignore this.
Pollution of the environment: Here we have to distinguish between garbage and litter. The albatross could feed on a toothbrush because someone carelessly threw it away instead of putting it into garbage. The real problem is with the litterbugs. Why do people litter? Either because they don’t care or because there are no proper disposal facilities. Providing proper disposal facilities educating people and charging them for littering seems to me more sensible than banning plastics. Do we push in this direction? I think not. Plastics do not decompose in landfills; therefore they cannot pollute the ground, air or water. So where is the problem?
Recycling: The issue is more complicated than people realize. Some items such as the PET bottles are easy to recycle because they are recognizable and there is a market for recycled PET. Most of the packaging however is PE. There are many grades of PE used,
and it is naïve to think that we just take a used shopping bag, stick it into a machine and out comes a new bag. Also the recycling is labor and energy intensive and market for recycled PE is limited; it cannot be used for food packaging for example (you would not want your food wrapped in a recycled bag which was reused for picking dog poo). Recycling paper is also associated with sizeable pollution.
Overwrapping: Much of it is done to minimize shoplifting or tampering with the goods, hence it is a people caused problem. Proper packaging also protects the goods so using inadequate packaging may decrease garbage caused by the packaging and increase garbage by spoiled goods.
Incineration: The negative perception of incineration is more an emotional than rational reaction. In fact modern incinerators pollute less than your fireplace, produce useful energy (reduce pollution) and reduce the refuse volume considerably. The remnants contain only the elements which were in the garbage already. Plastics burn cleanly and contain a lot of energy.
So what to do? Look at the bigger picture and think about the ultimate goal. Abolishing plastics may be the means but not the goal. Educate yourself, visit the waste disposal facilities, and talk to the people in the know. Educate others. Look at other options and alternatives which would get you bigger bang for the buck. For example are there enough waste containers on the streets, are there composting facilities in our community, etc etc.
Use your energy where it can do some good.
In search of the naked strawberry 4:44pm on 03 Aug 2008 Can somebody please explain to me this obvious paranoia about "Plastics"? The issue is a complicated one and before you embark on a crusade get the facts first.
What do I want to achieve - abandoning plastics or some environmental benefit. Which one?
What are the altenatives?
What is the environmental impact of plastics and the alternatives from cradle to grave?
How is the plastic and the alterative disposed of? Landfil? Incineration? Composting?
How much energy and resources are used in collecting, sorting and recycling plastics?
What is the percentage of plastics in the ladfill?
Etc. Etc.
Could I do more good in focusing my energies on more important issues?
Do your homework.

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