Survey finds that 60 firms are responsible for half of world’s plastic pollution

Otter@lemmy.ca to World News@lemmy.world – 505 points –
Survey finds that 60 firms are responsible for half of world’s plastic pollution
theguardian.com
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Oh yay, blame the consumers not the ones making the trash, worked so well the past 50 years

Nah consume consume consume, shirk blame

Actively reject education, then refuse any blame. That sounds like the best plan!!

Or we can acknowledge that our society is not conducive to the type of living required to effect change in the way necessary to solve this. That boycotts do not work, and historically the best course of action would be to put controls on the corporations backed with actual teeth. Blaming the consumer is ineffectual if the goal is to actual solve the problem. But works if the goal is to defer blame to not have to fix the problem

More than one person is to blame. For example, within every single corporation, decisions are often made by committee and even when it's a unilateral decision, others can speak out if it's an immoral one.

Yes obviously companies being irresponsible is the biggest problem, but sitting on our hands at home because we can't make as much of a difference adds up and I'm sick of seeing it excused. Your argument will be used as an excuse to be lazy more often than not.

Trick, unless you want to go all ecoterrorist right now, which I admit is looking enticing, the best plan of action is to put up corporate regulation. Finding a path forward to that, where individuals can sign petitions and get those enacted into laws, is probably the best path forward as destroying existing infrastructure will also hurt people and society.

you want to go all ecoterrorist right now

uh what?

the best plan of action is to put up corporate regulation

Obviously. People apparently just can't seem to understand nuance. Either it's all one group's fault or all another's. Also, it has to be a blame game. As if suggesting people try to minimize their home waste is somehow justifying corporate negligence...

I am not excusing laziness. I am just not interested in assigning blame. I am recognizing that when given the choice people will choose what they are used to, what is easy, and what is cheap. It is not in human nature to sacrifice the tangible to achieve nebulous and incalculably small overall change, especially when it’s out of sight out of mind. You are wasting your breath attempting to guilt every individual on the planet into living in a commune. You don’t even practice what you preach. It is a waste of time, and It. Will. Not. Work.

On a practicality standpoint. If you really want to solve this problem, the single most effective route is to regulate corporations. In places that the government did not regulate the use of asbestos, it is still in use for example.

I hate corporations so I am going to continue buying sugary bullshit that I don't need, and get pissed off at anyone who suggests I give the worst polluters less of my money

-the anti corporate position.

You did not listen to what i had said, you just repeated what was said above.

There are problems with blaming the individual. One is that you are not naming the individual, when you appeal to a nebulous blame, no one is at fault. Also, the sugary drinks you are referring to, are laced with the worlds 2 most addictive substances, has their impact on people lies about in falsified studies, and lobbies against its regulation by…. Corporations.

Blaming the individual is inefficient. And not conducive to actual change

so instead we get pissy about plastic straws, a regulation imposed on corporations by the government.

As far as i know there have been no regulations from the government over the use of plastic straws. Some companies use paper straws, but the market for plastic straws have largely not noticed, meaning the choice alone has not solved the problem. The problem remains. Regulation on the sale of plastic straws would have an immediate impact on the amount of straw plastic waste

Nah nah see if we can't solve it ourselves at home fully then we should just point our fingers and pretend that's all we can do. /s

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If everybody individually behaved correctly, we wouldn't need any laws.
But as the entire human history has shown us, that is not the case. Which is why societies have passed laws even before recorded history.

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