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by easyat 2952 days ago
Much of that plastic discharge is from manufacturing of goods that will be consumed in the West. Economic and environmental policies in these places are exploited by Western businesses

Simple blaming it on the culture of a people seems myopic
1 comments
vimy 2952 days ago
The West isn't forcing them to dump everything on the street or in their rivers. That's on them. Besides, if you look at pictures or videos of rivers drowning in plastic, it doesn't look like industrial waste at all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PavA4rUypE
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mikec3010 2952 days ago
The west isn't forcing them, but it's choosing them for manufacturing because they are the cheapest. One reason they are cheap is because of no environmental regulation.

There's a great documentary on YouTube about the ship breaking industry in Sri Lanka. Rich nations selling old ships for scrap to a very poor nation who couldn't care less about the environment or workers rights. Much better to dump it there than in a western nation where asbestos must be mitigated and oily pipes can't be welded on the beach.

See also China. Especially a few years ago when their "smoggy cities" photos were making headlines. The west chides them on their pollution, yet where do all your consumer devices come from and why do they come from there and not your country ? Of course they're more polluted when they do most of the manufacturing for the world.

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reaperducer 2952 days ago
>Of course they're more polluted when they do most of the manufacturing for the world.

The United States, European Union, and Japan all manufacture more than China and are comparatively pristine.

It's time to stop playing the "We're just poor China! You big bad Western countries are too hard on us!" card.

You're either a technological powerhouse, or not. Time to put on your big boy pants.

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reaperducer 2952 days ago
>Rich nations selling old ships for scrap to a very poor nation who couldn't care less about the environment or workers rights.

So... companies in rich nations should stop selling disused ships to companies poor nations, keeping them poor. Got it.

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