I hope that’s not one of those fake animal rescue channels. I’ve been avoiding this kind of videos ever since.
But aside from donating to NGOs dedicated to cleaning up ocean litter, the average person has very little way to reduce the number of plastic nets in the water. It requires lifting fishermen out of poverty, teaching them more sustainable fishing practices, and cracking down on littering, all things that require international cooperation.
It requires lifting fishermen out of poverty
Bruh. These aren’t 1 dude in a boat with a long line. These are billion dollar corporations running fleets. And yes, we need international cooperation to bring them to heel. Like with farmers, however, make no mistake that the people doing this kind of pollution are at all ignorant or unaware of what they are doing.
the average person has very little way to reduce the number of plastic nets in the water
Besides the obvious and 100% viable option of just not eating fish.
The average person cannot make the connection between the food they eat and the animal it was. People act so appalled by the torturous conditions in animal farms, and then stop at McDonald’s on their lunch break to pick up some chicken nuggets, totally unaware of the irony
Yeah, I simultaneously want to comment that the left panels are a wild fantasy, as I’ve never seen an actual human say that we should focus on plastic straws. As far as I can tell, that’s propaganda put into the world by companies trying to discredit genuine efforts.
But at the same time, it’s not even like you have to focus on straws. You can simply not use them, because it is just a stupid concept to produce something that’s immediately trash, and then also go and do other things in life. Believe it or not, most activities in life don’t involve straws.
Straws become the focus because people like them and find them useful and make them a part of their culture and then proposed bans threaten to take them away. People do focus on them, I’ve seen plenty of online arguments about straw bans and the ethics of straws, which happens because they are a part of the lives of the people arguing about them, unlike fishing nets which they never use or see.
There is a side of environmentalism that comes off as being smugly superior about your lifestyle and disparaging and seeking to shame and control in small ways (usually poorer) people who don’t live that way, with the pretext that it’s about saving the planet. To me that sort of thing seems like it’s mainly just a dumpster fire of political capital, purely counterproductive.
Just FYI:
Single-use plastic products are used once, or for a short period of time, before being thrown away. Under the EU’s rules on single-use plastics, the EU is tackling the 10 single-use plastic items most commonly found on Europe’s beaches and is promoting sustainable alternatives. The 10 items are
Cotton bud sticks
Cutlery, plates, straws and stirrers
Balloons and sticks for balloons
Food containers
Cups for beverages
Beverage containers
Cigarette butts
Plastic bags
Packets and wrappers
Wet wipes and sanitary items
https://commission.europa.eu/news/less-plastic-waste-means-cleaner-beaches-2024-08-14_en
So yeah, nets are bad, but straws, plastic bags, cigarettes and packages are also a problem.
People want to pretend just the things that are convenient to them are an issue. They say government and companies need to take action, then complain about actions taken. It’s really wild to see.
Not throwing my garbage in the wild makes me have no idea how often straws end up in the ocean, so it seemed like a wild thing to go after.
Any idea if it’s people dumping all this stuff in the wild or if it’s because we throw it out in our bins that it somehow gets to the ocean?
a lot of single-use items come from fast food places, which people will eat in their cars and then just throw out the window as they drive along.
it’s a fucking sad practice but it’s really hard to get people to stop doing it, so the next best option is just to make sure as much as possible of the things you get from fast food joints will dissolve in a rain shower.
It’s called environmental dumping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_dumping
First world countries ship waste to third world countries where dumping is not illegal (or at least not enforced).
You get stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVnMBGXVVUI
Hmm. Perhaps the beaches shouldn’t be the prioritized focus for developing alternatives to plastic.
If it’s on the beach, it can be picked up. Today, tomorrow or eventually.
I think the plastic that can’t be as easily be collected ought to be replaced by alternatives first.
If it’s on the beach it’s been washed up there. The stuff that’s washing up can be collected, sure, but that represents a small percentage of the overall amount that there is.
It’s kind of crazy - those plastic Q-tips are only better if you want to totally wreck your ears and every doctor is warning against that. For every legitimate use, those paper variants work perfectly well
This is a list of end-consumer items put together by a government body beholden to fishing and other industries. And it’s not even about pollution levels, it’s specifically about beach pollution. Plastic lids on cartons of heavy cream are “also a problem” if we focus only on reducing plastic waste in the kitchen, but implying it’s even relevant compared to industrial plastic waste is disingenuous
Why shouldn’t it be relevant? The waste is out there, is being found on our beaches and the industrial plastic waste is not swept up as often? So why would a regulation to prevent the most common plastic-items on our beaches from being there be bad?
Diatribe alert. If you just wanna know, here: 75% to 86% of plastic waste in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch came from fishing industry, article, study.
It’s not bad, and I didn’t claim it to be bad. It’s not relevant in the same way Dr Thunder and Pibb Xtra aren’t leading to a soft drink crisis in the USA—they’re a small part of a much bigger problem.
To carry on with this dumbass analogy, it would be misleading to argue for a ban on off-brand sodas while continuing to mass produce Sprite, Pepsi, and Diet Coke, and it lets big businesses off the hook for their destruction. Same with letting industries shovel untold plastic waste into the oceans behind our backs while making more visible efforts to ban much smaller amounts back on land.
Also, we’re not just worried about plastic because it ends up on beaches. That is, again, missing the bigger picture. It’s also missing why those items in particular end up on beaches, which is because of local littering. A cup on a beach is actually great for the environment compared to a piece of nylon disintegrating in the ocean. It just looks ugly. Our primary focus can’t be on ugly right now.
If you ban plastic straws from European beaches and say job well done, the planet will never notice. We need to start with the big issues, we don’t have time to pat them on the back and keep subsidizing the destruction of our planet. Agricultural fertilizer is next followed by plastic bags, iirc, or maybe bottles.
straws
I probably use a straw a single time each year, and I don’t see people using straws much either, why is this a huge problem again?
And if you go out and order a drink, you might get 3 or 4 straws. Yes, it’s stupid. Yes, it doesn’t make sense. But it happens and people throw their to-go drinks into the environment after they finished them
And if you go out and order a drink, you might get 3 or 4 straws.
I have never seen that happening. Where do you live? Here in Poland you get maximum 1 straw if any, lol.
Edit: Or you mean alcoholic drink? It’s possible, but I don’t really drink this kind of stuff at pubs, only beer.
On an unrelated notes, a huge fraction of oceanic microplastics is from car tyres. Driving is a number one source of oceanic microplastic.
Car tyres are also significant contributors to terrestial microplastics and particulate matter!
Since this is a science community, can I ask what studies directly link these microplastics to the specific adverse affects?
I see a lot of “BPA microplastics are hormone disruptors” and “microplastics found in placentas!” Etc … ok, but are they the same microplastics in these studies?
It sounds like when everyone puts scarequotes around “chemicals”…
tbf they are only heavier because they are making them SUVs instead of coupes or sedans and trying to convince people that a 150 mile range isnt long enough for them as if they wont just plug it back in when they get home or as if they actually commute 75 miles each way. God forbid they have to wait for it to charge. Electric vehicles have the potential to be the same weight or lighter but car companies all suck.
Yeah, if they built cars people don’t want with batteries smaller than people want to buy, the wheels could just be as bad as normal cars.
If everyone had switched to driving corollas and civics in the year 1990, we would have less micro plastics and a way cooler environment but… people hate each other and don’t give a fuck.
