[notmyfuture]

If the effect of having plastic recycling collection is increased plastic consumption (less guilt “it gets recycled”), and our ability to recycle is as abysmal as is reported in many places... we may be better off stopping plastic recycling collection. We could then focus more on eliminating unwarranted usage and/or safe disposal.

[spzb]

The motto of waste management is "reduce, reuse, recycle" and they're in order of priority. First order of business is to reduce the amount of waste we produce.

[jillesvangurp]

A lot of this debate is unfortunately centered around irrational arguments. People are (rightfully) concerned about microplastics in our oceans but jump to conclusions when it comes to single use plastics being a main cause for that.

This guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/22/tyres-an... breaks it down nicely. Single use plastics are a source of this type of pollution but not a huge or dominant one. If you think about it, if you dispose of your single use plastic the appropriate way, it is extremely unlikely to ever end up in an ocean. I live in Berlin. That's a few hundred kilometers from the sea. Most waste plastic here ends up being garbage collected and probably incinerated. Fish aren't exactly choking on plastic in the single river that runs through this city. Apparently it's quite clean these days.

On the other hand, anything driving on the German autobahn is probably dumping tire particulates by the kilos per year on the road, straight into the sewer and into the water ways. A kilo in tires is just normal wear and tear. A kilo in plastic bags is an enormous amount of plastic. Also that road you are driving on is being ground to dust by anything driving over it and that is quite nasty stuff as well.

I still think getting rid of single use plastics is a good idea but for me the primary reason would be reducing our dependence on the fossil fuels used to produce them and the dirty energy used to produce and transport them. Paper is biodegradable and can be made from sustainable stuff (trees). The energy used to do that is still a problem. So, single use paper bags and cups are not much of an upgrade here.

We should focus on producing and using things that are recyclable or at least sustainably produced and disposed off. E.g. germany has an awesome bottle collection system where people pay a deposit when they buy a can or bottle and get back that deposit when they return it to the store. Dumping plastic or glass bottles on the street here is a form of charity. Plenty of people around interested in collecting those. I usually leave my bottles in a visible/convenient spots.