That’s why they should pay a tax for every pound of plastic they produce, with an equivalent refund for every pound they certifiably dispose of properly.

When you have to clean up your own mess you get good at it.

It really is frustrating. Like we even have resin codes. Little numbers printed that should indicate what kind of plastic it is.

I’m in Seattle. We have a robust recycling system. I still can’t find anywhere what resin code plastics they accept. The website just says “plastic bottles and jugs.”

I pay to use Ridwell. They accept plastic film and, as of recently, “multi-layer plastic.”

The only way to tell these apart is just by judging the plastic for how it feels. Plastic film is stretchier while multi-layer tends to be crinkly? Half the plastic we dispose of does not fall firmly in either camp, so we just do our best.

Why does it have to be this hard?

Yes some of the products have extremely functional uses, but for the rest of it

Don't you think most plastic products are used because it's convenient?

I fight against it, but it is hard to not recognize how a plastic bottle is much lighter than any other bottle material, how convenient it is to get a plastic bag at the shop when you forgot yours, how convenient it is to get a ready meal in a cheap plastic box instead of an expensive and/or heavy washable container that you may have to bring back etc. Even compared to paper bags, plastic bags are more resistant, lighter and more compact.
There are probably much more similar convenience uses in the industry.
Plastic is mostly used because it's convenient, not because of a big plastic conspiracy.

So to solve the issue, we need states to make it expensive enough that people will overcome the inconvenience. Making people pay for plastic bags at shops works very well, for example.

I speak as someone horrified by the over-abundance of plastics in Japan. Some fruits have 3 layers of plastic around, even bananas come in plastic bags, because modern Japan is all about looking clean and being convenient, zero fucks given to ecology.

O&G?

Toxic waste in the soil, toxic waste in the products. Whee! I actually constantly do wonder what we could do to pump the breaks as a people. It's a difficult thing to think about, because I think the first step is getting people used to two things (at least here in America)

a) Things will not always be available when you go to the store
b) Things will not last as long as they typically have due to exposure

I'm not really sure how to get people on board because most are reactive not proactive and they tend to not react to things that can't directly correlate themselves or witness with their own eyes. I mean, also a lot of people are like me shrugging at what they cannot actively change.

I just try to buy intelligently, ride my things to their grave, and recycle and repurpose what I can. Shrugs.

And they have know about it for a long time..... https://climateintegrity.org/plastics-fraud