Is anyone else getting sick at the sight of plastic?

[Anonymous]

The signs that people put out on their lawns for birthdays and graduations, the holiday decorations that will someday choke an animal? Even looking at the WH decorations...why?
I was watching a TV commercial and the sight of the set with tons of plastic props was annoying.
I accept that we need plastic at times, but I am ready to see a lot less of it.

[Anonymous]

I’m with you. I really appreciate plastic some places, but overall it’s like people are gorging on it.

[Anonymous]

YES. A thousand times yes. But you can deny yourself most holiday plastic and still, by buying food for your own survival, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions (ex: beef is by far the most polluting food item to produce).

So it's too easy for me to fall into guilt and what ifs. That's what I'm mostly working on - how not to feel the burden of flying to Europe and Asia to visit my parents or my aunts. How to celebrate milestones and live my daily life with ease, but without polluting too much. What to buy to make the least impact on the planet.

Overall, it bears repeating that our greatest power lies in VOTING for politicians that will push through climate change and pollution mitigation. Each of our individual efforts doesn't even register compared to what governments can do, so it's useless to guilt-trip others into leading more responsible lives. What matters is convincing them that our species will not survive that easily if we don't act now on a global scale - and that means new legislation and enforcement.

I've become a single-issue voter - I will vote for the person who is most able to mitigate climate change.

[Anonymous]

I have been sick of it for years. I'm sick of seeing ads for gas-powered cars.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I bought little spoons the other day and they were EACH in plastic. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YES. A thousand times yes. But you can deny yourself most holiday plastic and still, by buying food for your own survival, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions (ex: beef is by far the most polluting food item to produce).

So it's too easy for me to fall into guilt and what ifs. That's what I'm mostly working on - how not to feel the burden of flying to Europe and Asia to visit my parents or my aunts. How to celebrate milestones and live my daily life with ease, but without polluting too much. What to buy to make the least impact on the planet.

Overall, it bears repeating that our greatest power lies in VOTING for politicians that will push through climate change and pollution mitigation. Each of our individual efforts doesn't even register compared to what governments can do, so it's useless to guilt-trip others into leading more responsible lives. What matters is convincing them that our species will not survive that easily if we don't act now on a global scale - and that means new legislation and enforcement.

I've become a single-issue voter - I will vote for the person who is most able to mitigate climate change.

Agree but individual effort does not hurt, it could even propagate a grassroots effort.

[Anonymous]

I haven't lost any sleep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:YES. A thousand times yes. But you can deny yourself most holiday plastic and still, by buying food for your own survival, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions (ex: beef is by far the most polluting food item to produce).

So it's too easy for me to fall into guilt and what ifs. That's what I'm mostly working on - how not to feel the burden of flying to Europe and Asia to visit my parents or my aunts. How to celebrate milestones and live my daily life with ease, but without polluting too much. What to buy to make the least impact on the planet.

Overall, it bears repeating that our greatest power lies in VOTING for politicians that will push through climate change and pollution mitigation. Each of our individual efforts doesn't even register compared to what governments can do, so it's useless to guilt-trip others into leading more responsible lives. What matters is convincing them that our species will not survive that easily if we don't act now on a global scale - and that means new legislation and enforcement.

I've become a single-issue voter - I will vote for the person who is most able to mitigate climate change.

Agree but individual effort does not hurt, it could even propagate a grassroots effort.

Of course, but I was talking about feeling guilty (or sick, as OP put it), or shaming others who waste more. What matters is education on which activities pollute more, and constant reminders that effective change is done at the legislative level, so we must all make this the biggest electoral issue. This would be groundbreaking for the US! There have been green parties in Europe for decades - they usually share power with left-wing parties, but occasionally they've been so powerful that they've been able to govern by themselves. This is what we should be doing, American-style.

[Anonymous]

I was thinking this was about controlling credit card spending

[Anonymous]

I am increasingly annoyed with the plastic packaging of everything. That seems like an easy fix and doesn't even demand that people change what they want to own or use. Like, why put a winter jacket inside a plastic bag to ship it? It's just lazy reliance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am increasingly annoyed with the plastic packaging of everything. That seems like an easy fix and doesn't even demand that people change what they want to own or use. Like, why put a winter jacket inside a plastic bag to ship it? It's just lazy reliance.

Amen to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am increasingly annoyed with the plastic packaging of everything. That seems like an easy fix and doesn't even demand that people change what they want to own or use. Like, why put a winter jacket inside a plastic bag to ship it? It's just lazy reliance.

Amen to that.

It's because of rodent and clothes mite damage from the factory to your home. This is actually one of the rare places where plastic might be useful, as long as garments are mass produced. Your clothes are perhaps more traveled than you. The fabric is produced in one place, cut in another, the garment is assembled elsewhere, finished in another place, and by the time it comes to your door it's been around the world. Meanwhile, rodents exist in all factories and shipping containers, and poop every 15 minutes. Studies were made that found a tiny amount of rodent excrement dust in all packaged cereal, for example. Clothes mites can ruin woollens in a day.

So. Unless you're buying from a seamstress who makes your clothes by hand in her own home, you might want that plastic bag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am increasingly annoyed with the plastic packaging of everything. That seems like an easy fix and doesn't even demand that people change what they want to own or use. Like, why put a winter jacket inside a plastic bag to ship it? It's just lazy reliance.

Amen to that.

It's because of rodent and clothes mite damage from the factory to your home. This is actually one of the rare places where plastic might be useful, as long as garments are mass produced. Your clothes are perhaps more traveled than you. The fabric is produced in one place, cut in another, the garment is assembled elsewhere, finished in another place, and by the time it comes to your door it's been around the world. Meanwhile, rodents exist in all factories and shipping containers, and poop every 15 minutes. Studies were made that found a tiny amount of rodent excrement dust in all packaged cereal, for example. Clothes mites can ruin woollens in a day.

So. Unless you're buying from a seamstress who makes your clothes by hand in her own home, you might want that plastic bag.

If this is true, we need to buy fewer clothes

[Anonymous]

We should have to keep any plastic that we buy. Only way to get rid of it is to pay to have it removed. Dumping should be fined.
All of a sudden, NOTHING would come home with plastic. We would rediscover regular wooden pencils.

[Anonymous]

Go into a dollar store. It’s an entire store of random plastic crud. And they are everywhere.