[Y-bar]

We tried that for more than thirty years.

We tried public awareness campaigns, major environmental and educational groups were part of it, celebrities and television personalities held galas on prime time which some estimated 40% of the population tuned into, frequent ad campaigns, via sports clubs and scouting, lobbying, partnering with ski resorts.

It barely worked. Plastic pollution still increased.

[userbinator]

The population also increased, but plastic pollution is really a nothingburger to distract us from the real problems, especially with several countries bombing the hell out of others now.

[Y-bar]

Plastic pollution increased even when taking population growth into account. For example beverage manufacturers have largely moved from reusable glassware to single-use bottle over this time period.

[userbinator]

You may want to research the carbon footprint of glass. No only for production but in the transport of goods, where heavy, relatively fragile containers require more energy to ship.

[Y-bar]

We did do extensive research, and glass came out significantly ahead in the long term, even when accounting for transport and manufacture, this is because glass is multi-use where bottles are re-used hundreds of times before needing to be replaced.

Plastic: <8% reusability via energy-intensive melting and re-shaping.

Glass: >95% reusability via washing, and of the remaining 50% > 99% can be reused via melting and re-shaping.

Over the average lifespan of a glass flask (n≈18 million), it released about 40% less CO2 equivalents compared to the amount of plastic needed to fulfil the same role.