For many years now, I’ve been trying to cut down on using plastic stuff (e.g. Glocks), even though I know that here in the United States, the plastic trash is handled quite responsibly. And of course, often it’s just impossible because so much packaging is made of plastic. Still, I persevere because it’s the Right Thing To Do.
However, I have been to the Third World, and quite frankly, I’ve often wondered why I bother. Anyone who’s done the same will know that there, the trash is never handled responsibly; both personal- and industrial-scale littering are the rule, and not the exception.
So here’s the proof of what I’ve just said:
Shocking study reveals 90% of global plastic waste comes from just TEN rivers in Asia and Africa
As governments around the world rush to address the global problem of plastic pollution in the oceans, researchers have now pinpointed the river systems that carry the majority of it out to sea.
About five trillion pounds is floating in the sea, and targeting the major sources — such as the Yangtze and the Ganges — could almost halve it, scientists claim.
And here’s the pic:
…and no, the United States, often called the “world’s largest polluter”, does not have its giant Mississippi River included on the list.
All the smug, self-righteous tools in the U.S., Europe and the U.K. who think that banning grocery shopping bags and drinking straws will somehow alleviate the issue are, as always, thinking out their ass. That, in the West anyway, is handled by putting the foul stuff into landfills.
For the record: when it comes to pollution — be it airborne or material — the West is not the problem. Look eastwards. Hell, even the terrorists are Doing Something (when they’re not slaughtering innocent people, that is).
But of course, heaven forbid we should chide these polluting countries or (say) impose trade embargoes on them until they clean up their act, because rayciss. Far better that we flagellate ourselves with stupid anti-pollution rules with the subsequent strangled economies, and ignore China, India, Africa and Southeast Asia.
Man, are we stupid.
A significant part of the problem–though this doesn’t discount your thesis–is that Europe is shipping it’s “recycling” waste to parts of Asia to be recycled because it can’t be economically processed in Europe.
So it goes to places with a LOT looser environmental laws.
So, in essence *recycling laws* are making the pollution problem worse.
I hear tell that in places like the Philippines (and by “places Iike” I mean the Philippines) the people take their trash to the seashore and let the tide carry it “away”.
China has stopped accepting plastic recycling due to now having sufficient plastic production of their own. This means that your city pickup/recycling of plastic will be going to landfill, for the most part. In theory, your trash costs should go down, as that recycling ran at a loss, but when have you ever seen a .gov lower their fees?