[throwaway5752]

First, comments like yours is how nothing ever gets done.

Second, you use citation-free statistics that are misleading. How much plastic waste from Asia is from "recycled" US and European ("first world", to use your dog whistle) plastics?

edit: to repeat myself, How much plastic waste from Asia is from "recycled" US and European ("first world", to use your dog whistle) plastics? - the research that 90% of the plastic waste in the oceans comes from 10 rivers is such common knowledge that the NY Post is one of the top hits if you search for this. Plastic from those rivers comes from ostensibly "recycled" western plastics, so this is actually very meaningful policy from the EU.

[Negitivefrags]

> First, comments like yours is how nothing ever gets done.

The politician's fallacy, is a logical fallacy of the form:

1. We must do something

2. This is something

3. Therefore, we must do this.

[hjek]

There's also the all-or-nothing fallacy, where you don't do anything because it's not perfect.

[toufiqbarhamov]

Here is the paper the statistic is based on.

https://twin.sci-hub.tw/7148/507066f35e75c25d1b1e160ada5693c...

ABSTRACT: A substantial fraction of marine plastic debris originates from land-based sources and rivers potentially act as a major transport pathway for all sizes of plastic debris. We analyzed a global compilation of data on plastic debris in the water column across a wide range of river sizes. Plastic debris loads, both microplastic (particles <5 mm) and macroplastic (particles >5 mm) are positively related to the mismanaged plastic waste (MMPW) generated in the river catchments. This relationship is nonlinear where large rivers with population-rich catchments delivering a disproportionately higher fraction of MMPW into the sea. The 10 top-ranked rivers transport 88−95% of the global load into the sea. Using MMPW as a predictor we calculate the global plastic debris inputs form rivers into the sea to range between 0.41 and 4 × 106 t/y. Due to the limited amount of data high uncertainties were expected and ultimately confirmed. The empirical analysis to quantify plastic loads in rivers can be extended easily by additional potential predictors other than MMPW, for example, hydrological conditions.

It’s worth pointing out that this is a single study, and I’m unsure of the accuracy of their methods of inference and sampling. The link to a previous comment in this thread implies that it’s incorrect, so keep that in mind as well.

[Mirioron]

>The EU's research on the topic says about 150,000 tonnes of plastic are tossed into European waters every year.

>That is only a small contributor to the global problem, with an estimated eight million tonnes of plastic entering the world's oceans annually. And once there, plastic can travel great distances on ocean currents.

That's 1.875%. Furthermore, single use plastics make up slightly less than half of that amount.

How meaningful is this again?

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45965605

[throwaway5752]

I'm going to assume good faith and spell this out plainly:

1. People in the US, Europe, Australia, et al. "recycle" plastic.

2. The recycling companies in these regions export commingled and low quality plastics to reprocessors in China

3. The commingled low quality recycled plastic can't be reprocessed economically, and ends up in a river.

At any rate, the EU number you cited as well as NA numbers are about to rise, because China cut the world off from dumping it's garbage there: https://e360.yale.edu/features/piling-up-how-chinas-ban-on-i...

That is probably the reason for this plastic disposables ban, and more that are to come.

[thatoneuser]

Comments like yours are how ineffective policies get put in place which do little to nothing while simultaneously burning out the drive to change by making people feel hopeless. Just because you can identify a problem doesn't mean any effort to resolve is a good one.