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Thank you for the nuance. Bad data and hyperbole doesn't help what I agreed is a serious issue.

Psypost is like the the Daily Mail of science journalism. Kind of just dismiss everything I see from them at this point. Thank you for the rebuttal.

Plastic's a product from the Oil and Gas industry - a crude oil byproduct, naptha into nurdles - and they make a fucktonne of cash from it. Obviously not talking about every type of plastic or the "bio-plastics." Almost all plastic comes from O&G.

I recall a moment maybe in the early 2000s when the industry lobby tried arguing they were actually being environmentalists and serving the public good by making plastic out of what would otherwise be toxic waste, like they're responsibly using every part of the animal. So ridiculous they dropped the campaign within the week iirc.

But I think about that every time a Premier or Mayor comes out weirdly, strongly opposed to this plastic bag or that plastic straw being banned - that they're virtue signalling to the O&G lobby.

So it's not about what consumers or society embrace, or what's logical or easier. O&G don't care if we recycle it, huff the fumes melting it down, or feed it to the fishes. They don't even really care how little their nurdle sells for, just as long as they can still sell it for something.

Plastic is generally cheaper; for a while there was a misguided push against using paper/cardboard because sAvE tHe TrEeS

I'm not so sure what cardboard/paper you mean? If you mean something like the paper cups that coffee comes in, they also contain plastic. Dirty paper/cardboard can also not be recycled, so your pizza carton ends up in a landfill or burned. And what do you mean by foil? Genuinely curious.

In my area a lot of takeout places now offer reusable options for a deposit. Usually it is a cardboard with plastic lining container if it is one way. Except the Asian takeout places, they are all over the place from classic black plastic to aluminum containers to styropor to - circling back - the plastic carton stuff.

The plastic industry is why.

Plastic also has the benefit that it's really easy to make in whatever shape with injection molding, and is totally permanent, which if you don't care about disposal is great.

Meanwhile, making stuff out of a sheet of paper is a manufacturing challenge that has resulted in creative solutions like corrugation, and the container might seep through or soften or something.

There's a thing called extended producer responsibility which basically is the idea of making disposal not free anymore for the manufacturer.

I don't know if you've heard, but our brains are apparently full of plastic. We need articles like this dumbed down for us.

Yes, it is. Probably a few phrases written by a human and then a summary of the article with AI.

https://gptzero.me/

lets sacrifice shareholders for value instead

The medical field would be categorically fuct. Just the loss of sterile packaging would have serious consequences. Minimally invasive surgeries, joint replacements, bandages that don't adhere to wounds, stents...

Then let's consider cordage. Mountain climbing, arborists, rescue teams, sailboats (the most efficient way to cross oceans), ships, construction... the loss of just Dyneema/UHMWPE, which is a relatively new entrant to the cordage field would have seriously negative impacts.

There is a lot of energy bound up in those long molecules, and there are no unexploited niches in balanced ecosystems. There are already bacteria that can consume certain polymers under narrow conditions. Humanity is gonna be so screwed for a long time if bacteria can slip those narrow parameters.

There are plastic eating microorganisms, both fungi, and bacteria.

But, they take a long time to break down plastic. I've had a fungus that can digest plastic in a mushroom cultivation bag for nine months and only one specimen has made it through so far.

I imagine splicing the gene that allows for the production of this enzyme into an ocean bound microorganism would clean up a lot of it while not affecting most of our terristrial infrastructure.

Of course, folks put plastic tubing and what not in the ocean too, so I guess we'll all have to die instead.

Like what? If you're building an airplane or a sewer main all substitutes are inferior. The problem is that we're using the ultra-permanent wonder material for, like, candy wrappers.

I would like for you to meet my friend, the oyster mushroom. I'm wondering what level of soil accumulation we need to support massive, city-wide oyster mushroom blooms

Think of how many things around you are made of plastic. What about critical pieces of things like airplanes? What would you replace that with to prevent the bacteria from causing damage to them?

I could probably pick a few things on my desk right now that would be much more difficult and much more costly to produce with other materials.

Yes, I am sure such a bacteria being released at this scale would have absolutely zero negative consequences