[autoexec]

We could replace a large number of plastics right now and be just fine. Society flourished and thrived before we used plastic for everything in our lives. Some people would make less profit though, so of course it's impossible to make those kinds of changes, but we could.

[kulahan]

Society flourished without lots of stuff we have today. It just flourished less.

And people aren’t failing to migrate away from plastic because “somebody would make less money”, they’re using plastic because everything else basically sucks in comparison. It’s tough, cheap, light, stable, easy to shape, doesn’t often break dangerously, can have all of its basic properties modified, and more. Nothing else is THAT good.

Edit: Not to mention, it’s not as simple as “don’t use plastic packaging anymore”. We pull oil into a machine and cook it off at various stages to produce various things. Turning cooking stage 8 of 12 into a worthless pile of garbage to be discarded doesn’t stop us from pulling in that oil for the other 11 uses.

[Asmod4n]

All we need to do is to replace all plastics with bio degradable ones. But I guess that will take some time since we don’t have replacements for all petroleum based plastics yet.

Hopefully this will get us recycling friendly plastics for foods in the long run since those just get burned nowadays cause you can’t recycle those we have today for that job.

[kulahan]

I’m not sure that simply replacing one type of crude oil byproduct with something else does much on its own, since they still need all the other products produced before and after plastics are made.

[nervousvarun]

Agreed but for it to happen implies altruistic, non-profit based corporate decision making R&D & subsequent manufacturing etc.

No doubt the innumerable shareholder overlords out there who place the basic good of humanity over profit are pushing for it as we speak!

[kulahan]

It sucks you’re the only person on earth who is altruistic enough for this thing that would definitely work but you’re choosing not to enact it despite it being so easy it’s a simple choice.

Because your statement sure leaves exactly zero room for anything else. Kind of a stupid comment at the end of the day. Either that, or you’re such an incredible jerk that you’re specifically choosing not to make these very easy changes that would save the world.

[kevin_thibedeau]

Waxed paper was fine for a lot of food wrappers until the penny pinchers abandoned it.

[kulahan]

I don’t think wax paper is the dividing line between climate change and a happy planet, if I’m being honest

[computomatic]

Well, the mainstream adoption of plastics following World War II happens to coincide with an unprecedented period of relative global stability known as the “Long Peace.” So there’s at least some version of “thriving” that was, in fact, not previously achieved. Correlation does not imply causation but in this case it’s difficult to disentangle which innovations have lead to the relative global prosperity that has enabled this, and I think plastics are on the shortlist.

[ozlikethewizard]

The classic US take on global peace, ask the Koreans, Vietnamese, Iraqis, Afghans, etc, how they feel about the long peace?

Moreover, pretty sure it was nuclear weapons, not plastic, that stopped the imperial powers from directly attacking one another.

[fodkodrasz]

You are mistaking plastics for the MAD doctrine, and nuclear weapons.