I found it crazy just how much fishing lines, hooks, sinkers, etc end up in just a small river.. this guy on YouTube dives for and cleans them up as well as finding all manner of iPhones, GoPros, Knives, etc...
https://www.youtube.com/user/DALLMYD
If you get that in a small narrow river (admittedly it's a little rocky but still) you can only imagine what ends up in the oceans etc.
Probably the simplest thing is to limit population growth with extensive contraception and female education campaigns in the developing world, replacing food aid.
"Female education"?
Isn't the problem concerning everyone?
In the west we can try and stop producing plastic uselessly.
Make people pay for disposable glasses everywhere, they will start bringing their own as they do for bags when shopping in sensible places.
Stop producing useless packaging, make it forbidden for most things, make loose products the default and privileged way to buy and sell anything.
Provide reusable stainless steel containers, glass bottles, solid fabric bags that last.
Only produce things in plastic when it is absolutely necessary, things that are not thrown away after first and unique use. Use plastic to build solid items when the only alternative is to kill or make an animal suffer. When fabric, glass or metal cannot reasonably be used.
Make buying used things convenient and the privileged way to acquire stuff.
Recycling is costly and inefficient. The best waste is the one that is not produced. (I did not make this sentence myself.)
And the most ecological phone is the one you already have (to cite fairphone) so phones should be designed to last very long and people should stop buy phones every two years. This is true for many things, not just phones. Also some items might not be worth to have that much. Do you really need a (smart)watch especially when you already have a phone, considering all the resources and pollution it takes to make one, and considering the watch itself becomes a waste within a few years?
25% of ocean pollution may come from a handful developing countries, but that may just mean they don't handle waste. That does not mean they produce much more of it.
Developed country burn much of their waste. This is better but still absolutely terrible.
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[ 95.9 ms ] story [ 238 ms ] threadIf you get that in a small narrow river (admittedly it's a little rocky but still) you can only imagine what ends up in the oceans etc.
For example, 25% of ocean pollution comes from just 10 rivers (all in Asia or Africa)
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stemming-the-plas...
Probably the simplest thing is to limit population growth with extensive contraception and female education campaigns in the developing world, replacing food aid.
In the west we can try and stop producing plastic uselessly. Make people pay for disposable glasses everywhere, they will start bringing their own as they do for bags when shopping in sensible places. Stop producing useless packaging, make it forbidden for most things, make loose products the default and privileged way to buy and sell anything. Provide reusable stainless steel containers, glass bottles, solid fabric bags that last.
Only produce things in plastic when it is absolutely necessary, things that are not thrown away after first and unique use. Use plastic to build solid items when the only alternative is to kill or make an animal suffer. When fabric, glass or metal cannot reasonably be used.
Make buying used things convenient and the privileged way to acquire stuff.
Recycling is costly and inefficient. The best waste is the one that is not produced. (I did not make this sentence myself.)
And the most ecological phone is the one you already have (to cite fairphone) so phones should be designed to last very long and people should stop buy phones every two years. This is true for many things, not just phones. Also some items might not be worth to have that much. Do you really need a (smart)watch especially when you already have a phone, considering all the resources and pollution it takes to make one, and considering the watch itself becomes a waste within a few years?
25% of ocean pollution may come from a handful developing countries, but that may just mean they don't handle waste. That does not mean they produce much more of it.
Developed country burn much of their waste. This is better but still absolutely terrible.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17499935