Personally i think plastics are fine if the product is actually durable
My problem is this just kicks the can down the road. Some day, no matter what, that plastic is becoming waste. Maybe it gets recycled, but most likely, it doesn’t. If it doesn’t need to be plastic, it should not be plastic. Questioning if it’ll last long enough is just asking if it can last long enough to be someone else’s problem.
Definitely a good point if if doesn’t actually need to be plastic, i highly prefer natural materials overall. But thats not always practical.
I dont get the “someone elses problem” though. If the item is still perfectly usable then why would the next owner not also just want to use it? I personally value a hand me down that “served” my family for ages over “new thing”
If it is broken then it can get a new life by getting recycled.
Under current consumerism the pattern is that shit breaks and you buy it new, which causes us to psychologicly devalue the item (and thus materials) as it ages, i believe this is why so many plastics end up non recycled.
If items where durable, reliable, repairable. People will be more capable to perceive their value and be more concious about what happens to it after it breaks because losing it will hurt. Not quite like but somewhat similar to how we care about what happens to remains after death.
Also things being repairable increases the awareness of the materials because your working with them.
I dont get the “someone elses problem” though. If the item is still perfectly usable then why would the next owner not also just want to use it? I personally value a hand me down that “served” my family for ages over “new thing”
Because eventually, inevitably, there can’t be a next owner and it becomes garbage. Then, you’re right back to contributing to plastics pollution because while you can say that
If it is broken then it can get a new life by getting recycled
The reality is that a huge portion of plastic doesn’t get recycled.
If items where durable, reliable, repairable. People will be more capable to perceive their value and be more concious about what happens to it after it breaks because losing it will hurt. Not quite like but somewhat similar to how we care about what happens to remains after death.
I think you’d need a massive cultural shift to make it plausible, not just different stuff. And while we should be recycling, I don’t think it’s the right emphasis right now because recycling is largely an attempt by the oil and plastics companies to put the onus on us for the environmental harm caused by their product. It’s an attempt to fabricate an excuse to produce things out of plastic that really don’t need to be, and we’ve fallen for it. Of course we should recycle all the plastic we use, but we still shouldn’t be using plastic anywhere we don’t have to. There’s a reason the saying is “reduce, reuse, recycle”. They’re in order of priority, and recycling is the last defense. We need to start by significantly reducing the amount of plastic we use.
My problem is this just kicks the can down the road. Some day, no matter what, that plastic is becoming waste. Maybe it gets recycled, but most likely, it doesn’t. If it doesn’t need to be plastic, it should not be plastic. Questioning if it’ll last long enough is just asking if it can last long enough to be someone else’s problem.
Definitely a good point if if doesn’t actually need to be plastic, i highly prefer natural materials overall. But thats not always practical.
I dont get the “someone elses problem” though. If the item is still perfectly usable then why would the next owner not also just want to use it? I personally value a hand me down that “served” my family for ages over “new thing”
If it is broken then it can get a new life by getting recycled.
Under current consumerism the pattern is that shit breaks and you buy it new, which causes us to psychologicly devalue the item (and thus materials) as it ages, i believe this is why so many plastics end up non recycled.
If items where durable, reliable, repairable. People will be more capable to perceive their value and be more concious about what happens to it after it breaks because losing it will hurt. Not quite like but somewhat similar to how we care about what happens to remains after death.
Also things being repairable increases the awareness of the materials because your working with them.
Because eventually, inevitably, there can’t be a next owner and it becomes garbage. Then, you’re right back to contributing to plastics pollution because while you can say that
The reality is that a huge portion of plastic doesn’t get recycled.
I think you’d need a massive cultural shift to make it plausible, not just different stuff. And while we should be recycling, I don’t think it’s the right emphasis right now because recycling is largely an attempt by the oil and plastics companies to put the onus on us for the environmental harm caused by their product. It’s an attempt to fabricate an excuse to produce things out of plastic that really don’t need to be, and we’ve fallen for it. Of course we should recycle all the plastic we use, but we still shouldn’t be using plastic anywhere we don’t have to. There’s a reason the saying is “reduce, reuse, recycle”. They’re in order of priority, and recycling is the last defense. We need to start by significantly reducing the amount of plastic we use.