I think kill is a little too harsh for people that don't recycle. I feel that we should stop irresponsible behaviour. For this reason I favour education.
Recycling should be employed for as close to 100% of the materials we consume as is practical. However, recycling should be the last option.
Reduce. We should all make an effort not to purchase unnecessary or frivolous items.
Re-use. Re-usable items are far less energy consuming than recycling them.
Plastics are our MAJOR PROBLEM. We need to get rid of most of them. I recycle what I can, but I am still left with about one plastic shopping bag of mostly plastic per week. If I live to 75 years of age, that works out to 3,900 bags of waste in my lifetime. That doesn't include all the other plastics I use. Plastics in my car (vinyl very bad), clothing and textiles (polyester, nylon, rayon and others). floor coverings, countertops. Don't forget about 'hidden' plastics; insulation (polystyrene), plumbing (CPVC, PVC), coatings, other building materials. Take a look around and see how plastics have invaded our lives. THEY ARE NOT INNOCUOUS! Most plastics take 500 to 1,000 years to break down completely, but most are breaking down all the time. Biodegradable plastics, water-soluble plastics and polystyrene break down the fastest. When they break down, they still leave a polymer molecule behind. These molecules can and do invade into living cells, causing cellular malfunction. In this way, we are poisoning ALL animal and plant life on the planet, including ourselves. Should we continue using plastics, as we do now, ALL life on Earth will be extinguished in short order.
The fist thing we need to do is stop careless behaviour.
Next, is to itemize each and every plastic item we produce and ask is this necessary? If not, get rid of it (in a responsible way), don't buy it and don't participate in it's manufacture or distribution.
Next, we need to get plastics out of our food chain. My friends tell me that we can make food containers that will last 1,000 years out of carbon-fiber. We can re-use them over and over. What we need is to develop electronic labels that communicate with embedded microchips in the lids. We need globally standardized containers that are cleaned and sanitized at an industrial scale (think of peanut butter and jelly). HUGE OPPORTUNITIES HERE! We need to change our mind-set. Although these would be more expensive in the short-term, they would more than pay for themselves in the long-term.
Plastic plumbing. Right idea, but we need a new material.
Polystyrene. We need a new material to replace its uses.
We already have materials that can be used to replace many plastic items (carbon-fiber, corelle and kevlar [although this is technically a polmer, it is innocuous EXCEPT during its manufacture]). Use kevlar to make tote bags that can last 1,000 years.
Thermo-plastics are of least concern, but should still be recycled.
THERE ARE MANY HUGE OPPORTUNITIES HERE!!!
Most of of the world thrives off greed so, it would be very hard to get them to change their ways. I think food should be turned into compost if not, then it should be illegal to throw thing like plastic or glass into the trash. That would make it mandatory that everyone recycles. I would like to see glass bottles in mass production again. Glass has humble and natural origins unlike plastic. In Jamaica, trash is everywhere. They stopped using glass and have been using plastic instead. There's no recycle system, because apparently they don't care. I hate the for the entire world to get like that. In third world countries, if they made recycle plants there would probably be more jobs created and lesser pollution. Europe has recycling and creating Eco-Energy. It has worked for them so, why can't it work for others?
I agree with you that most of the world thrives off greed and that it would be hard to get them to change their ways. The only way this will change is if we (collectively) demand it. We must make people aware that plastics are a real threat to our continued existence, simply that we can not live on a plastic planet. They have tried to hide this information from us. They will try to tell you that it is innocuous, when it is not. Others will aver that when the oil runs out, so will the plastics; not true, we can turn cellulose (wood fiber) and natural gas into plastic. We need awareness in the public domain. Write to your elected officials and to corporate food and beverage producers. Remember that every email is regarded as 1,000 votes or consumers. Bring the issue up at school or work.
The problem with glass is that it is expensive to manufacture, transport and recycle, and most glass is fragile. I agree that we should keep some food and beverages in glass, but what we really need are new reusable, long-lasting and recyclable containers. Although these would be expensive to produce, they would pay for themselves many times over, over their life-span. We will need to find an innovative solution to initially finance them. My suggestion is to use a library-like system to control their usage.
Is it normal we should kill people who dont recycle?
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I think kill is a little too harsh for people that don't recycle. I feel that we should stop irresponsible behaviour. For this reason I favour education.
Recycling should be employed for as close to 100% of the materials we consume as is practical. However, recycling should be the last option.
Reduce. We should all make an effort not to purchase unnecessary or frivolous items.
Re-use. Re-usable items are far less energy consuming than recycling them.
Plastics are our MAJOR PROBLEM. We need to get rid of most of them. I recycle what I can, but I am still left with about one plastic shopping bag of mostly plastic per week. If I live to 75 years of age, that works out to 3,900 bags of waste in my lifetime. That doesn't include all the other plastics I use. Plastics in my car (vinyl very bad), clothing and textiles (polyester, nylon, rayon and others). floor coverings, countertops. Don't forget about 'hidden' plastics; insulation (polystyrene), plumbing (CPVC, PVC), coatings, other building materials. Take a look around and see how plastics have invaded our lives. THEY ARE NOT INNOCUOUS! Most plastics take 500 to 1,000 years to break down completely, but most are breaking down all the time. Biodegradable plastics, water-soluble plastics and polystyrene break down the fastest. When they break down, they still leave a polymer molecule behind. These molecules can and do invade into living cells, causing cellular malfunction. In this way, we are poisoning ALL animal and plant life on the planet, including ourselves. Should we continue using plastics, as we do now, ALL life on Earth will be extinguished in short order.
The fist thing we need to do is stop careless behaviour.
Next, is to itemize each and every plastic item we produce and ask is this necessary? If not, get rid of it (in a responsible way), don't buy it and don't participate in it's manufacture or distribution.
Next, we need to get plastics out of our food chain. My friends tell me that we can make food containers that will last 1,000 years out of carbon-fiber. We can re-use them over and over. What we need is to develop electronic labels that communicate with embedded microchips in the lids. We need globally standardized containers that are cleaned and sanitized at an industrial scale (think of peanut butter and jelly). HUGE OPPORTUNITIES HERE! We need to change our mind-set. Although these would be more expensive in the short-term, they would more than pay for themselves in the long-term.
Plastic plumbing. Right idea, but we need a new material.
Polystyrene. We need a new material to replace its uses.
We already have materials that can be used to replace many plastic items (carbon-fiber, corelle and kevlar [although this is technically a polmer, it is innocuous EXCEPT during its manufacture]). Use kevlar to make tote bags that can last 1,000 years.
Thermo-plastics are of least concern, but should still be recycled.
THERE ARE MANY HUGE OPPORTUNITIES HERE!!!
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Avant-Garde
11 years ago
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suckonthis9
11 years ago
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Most of of the world thrives off greed so, it would be very hard to get them to change their ways. I think food should be turned into compost if not, then it should be illegal to throw thing like plastic or glass into the trash. That would make it mandatory that everyone recycles. I would like to see glass bottles in mass production again. Glass has humble and natural origins unlike plastic. In Jamaica, trash is everywhere. They stopped using glass and have been using plastic instead. There's no recycle system, because apparently they don't care. I hate the for the entire world to get like that. In third world countries, if they made recycle plants there would probably be more jobs created and lesser pollution. Europe has recycling and creating Eco-Energy. It has worked for them so, why can't it work for others?
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suckonthis9
11 years ago
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I agree with you that most of the world thrives off greed and that it would be hard to get them to change their ways. The only way this will change is if we (collectively) demand it. We must make people aware that plastics are a real threat to our continued existence, simply that we can not live on a plastic planet. They have tried to hide this information from us. They will try to tell you that it is innocuous, when it is not. Others will aver that when the oil runs out, so will the plastics; not true, we can turn cellulose (wood fiber) and natural gas into plastic. We need awareness in the public domain. Write to your elected officials and to corporate food and beverage producers. Remember that every email is regarded as 1,000 votes or consumers. Bring the issue up at school or work.
--
suckonthis9
11 years ago
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The problem with glass is that it is expensive to manufacture, transport and recycle, and most glass is fragile. I agree that we should keep some food and beverages in glass, but what we really need are new reusable, long-lasting and recyclable containers. Although these would be expensive to produce, they would pay for themselves many times over, over their life-span. We will need to find an innovative solution to initially finance them. My suggestion is to use a library-like system to control their usage.
HUGE OPPORTUNITY: We need a new synthetic fiber for clothing and textiles that is not a polymer.