Is anyone else getting sick at the sight of plastic?

[Anonymous]

I love Costco but they are the worst about unnecessary plastic. I buy a little tube of face cream and it comes in an enormous plastic flat pack. Is that to cut down on shoplifting? I’ve started paying more to buy that stuff elsewhere so I don’t get the huge plastic pack around it.
I don’t mind the plastic bags that come with clothes because they can be repurposed for other things, but maybe they could be made out of something more biodegradable

[Anonymous]

I don't like it but I find people are very selective about what environmental waste they don't like. I'm extremely skeptical of people who dislike (for instance) Christmas decorations but who want to travel internationally.

[Anonymous]

I hate it when painters use massive yards of sheet plastic for drop cloths. They used to use canvass cloth and reuse it. Incredibly wasteful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't like it but I find people are very selective about what environmental waste they don't like. I'm extremely skeptical of people who dislike (for instance) Christmas decorations but who want to travel internationally.

No one is perfect, and we have not even defined perfect. A couple of trips overseas is not the issue. It's the people who fly around EVERY SINGLE VACATION.
Also, any reduction in waste is better than the ones who fly and waste.

[Anonymous]

I just finished decorating my porch for Christmas and very purposefully, have used old canisters, my mom’s old ice skates
and my grandfather’s wooden skis. Tossed old glass ornaments in a old metal locker basket. Love it all and there’s nothing out there that was made or manufactured prior to 1960.

I no longer buy any new holiday knickknacks; it’s all plastic junk. I buy all of my Christmas ribbon and boxes new, unopened from thrift stores.

I guarantee my future grandchildren won’t be decorating or upcycling with everyday items from 1980-present.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate it when painters use massive yards of sheet plastic for drop cloths. They used to use canvass cloth and reuse it. Incredibly wasteful.

Those canvas clothes are heavy and do soak thru. So sometimes floor refinishing or carpet replacement occurs, so it can be a huge carbon cost for that, and the added weight of canvas vs light plastic sheeting could have offset some of the plastic by gas savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just finished decorating my porch for Christmas and very purposefully, have used old canisters, my mom’s old ice skates
and my grandfather’s wooden skis. Tossed old glass ornaments in a old metal locker basket. Love it all and there’s nothing out there that was made or manufactured prior to 1960.

I no longer buy any new holiday knickknacks; it’s all plastic junk. I buy all of my Christmas ribbon and boxes new, unopened from thrift stores.

I guarantee my future grandchildren won’t be decorating or upcycling with everyday items from 1980-present.

I get your point but your timeframe is off. Stuff made in the 1980s was still really good -- American steel (heavier than the stuff we are now importing) and American hardwood were still common. Many, many things were still made in the USA in the 1980s, with the higher production standards. It really wasn't until the 1990s that stuff started being made all abroad (which doesn't always mean cheap crap, but often does). NAFTA was 1993, and China didn't overtake the US as a production site until 2010. Sometimes we forget how recent our reliance on cheap foreign manufacturing is.
There's a reason that they now tell you to throw a crib out after 10 years -- cheap plastic parts or the cheap metals instead of heavy steel; fast growth wood that splinters with use instead of hardwoods, etc. The old cribs could be handed down for decades and be sturdy as ever (assuming the slats weren't too far apart -- which is a different safety issue).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just finished decorating my porch for Christmas and very purposefully, have used old canisters, my mom’s old ice skates
and my grandfather’s wooden skis. Tossed old glass ornaments in a old metal locker basket. Love it all and there’s nothing out there that was made or manufactured prior to 1960.

I no longer buy any new holiday knickknacks; it’s all plastic junk. I buy all of my Christmas ribbon and boxes new, unopened from thrift stores.

I guarantee my future grandchildren won’t be decorating or upcycling with everyday items from 1980-present.

I get your point but your timeframe is off. Stuff made in the 1980s was still really good -- American steel (heavier than the stuff we are now importing) and American hardwood were still common. Many, many things were still made in the USA in the 1980s, with the higher production standards. It really wasn't until the 1990s that stuff started being made all abroad (which doesn't always mean cheap crap, but often does). NAFTA was 1993, and China didn't overtake the US as a production site until 2010. Sometimes we forget how recent our reliance on cheap foreign manufacturing is.
There's a reason that they now tell you to throw a crib out after 10 years -- cheap plastic parts or the cheap metals instead of heavy steel; fast growth wood that splinters with use instead of hardwoods, etc. The old cribs could be handed down for decades and be sturdy as ever (assuming the slats weren't too far apart -- which is a different safety issue).

This is a VERY GOOg point.
We can reverse the mess if we make an effort. There are websites that are all about finding goods made in the USA. I am trying to buy all USA, Canada, and Mexico products.

[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.

Plastic has nothing to do with climate change.

[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.

It's a struggle to get rid of plastic. Some of it is really, really useful, like plastic wrap when making gluten-free pastry. I hate plastic wrap, but it's essential for that purpose.

Overall, there about 80 multinational companies who contribute the most to global warming worldwide. If those (mostly oil) companies changed their ways, we'd have real progress. But that's only going to happen if we stop falling for their propaganda about recycling doing any good. It's a drop in the ocean, compared with the damage these companies do to our environment every single day.

That said, I try to behave the way I think everyone should behave. We all should care for our planet because we both depend on it for our collective survival and we share it with everyone. We can't hog or waste resources because we can afford to. It's not fair. I choose to behave as best I can, ridding my home of plastic, recycling, composting, buying "green" cleaning products, driving a hybrid car, etc. Even if everyone on the planet did what I do, that would not be enough to combat climate change. Large global corporations must mend their ways, and it will only happen when we demand it. Vote for politicians who will do the right thing when it comes to forcing companies to change their ways and reverse climate change. It can happen, but it will take a lot of effort. Each of us must do something.

[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.

Plastic has nothing to do with climate change.

Plastic is made from oil, which is almost completely responsible for climate change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love Costco but they are the worst about unnecessary plastic. I buy a little tube of face cream and it comes in an enormous plastic flat pack. Is that to cut down on shoplifting? I’ve started paying more to buy that stuff elsewhere so I don’t get the huge plastic pack around it.
I don’t mind the plastic bags that come with clothes because they can be repurposed for other things, but maybe they could be made out of something more biodegradable

I have not purchased a ziplock bag in a decade. I decided I would not buy poop bags for my dogs either. I reuse every plastic bag that comes into my house. I always cut them open carefully and save them to reuse for storing things (easier to find stuff if it's in a clear plastic bag) and poop bags (the ones without holes). I save bread bags and the plastic bags frozen vegetables come in to use for poop bags. I save all those zipper top bags lots of things like oatmeal and nuts come in. I have a basket in my kitchen where I keep them. I wash them out the way I'd wash out a plastic or glass food storage container. It's a small thing, but at least I'm not increasing the demand for plastic by buying plastic bags.

However, I have to buy plastic trash bags. My trash collectors will not pick up trash that's not in plastic bags. So there's nothing I can do about that.

[Anonymous]

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

Go into WalMart and try to find ANYTHING that's not plastic!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was thinking this was about controlling credit card spending

They are very related.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Plastic has nothing to do with climate change.

Plastic is made from oil, which is almost completely responsible for climate change.

+1 Plastic is a byproduct of the petroleum and gas industry. Did you think it grew on trees? https://www.ecowatch.com/fossil-fuels-single-use-plastics-2565595371.html