SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/bans-on-plastic-bags-can-backfire
Governments are increasingly banning the use of plastic products, such as carryout bags, straws, utensils, and microbeads. The goal is to reduce the amount of plastic going into landfills and waterways. And the logic is that banning something should make it less abundant.
However, this logic falls short if people actually reuse those items instead of buying new ones. For example, so-called “single-use” plastic carryout bags can have a multitude of unseen second lives—as trash-bin liners, dog poop bags, and storage receptacles.
A U.K. government study calculated that a shopper would need to reuse a cotton carryout bag 131 times to reduce its global warming potential—its expected total contribution to climate change—below that of plastic carryout bags used once to carry newly purchased goods. To have less impact on the climate than plastic carryout bags also reused as trash bags, consumers would need to use the cotton bag 327 times.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday August 07 2019, @05:18PM (2 children)
Just because something *can* become fossilized does not mean that it is non-biodegradable. If pollen never degraded, the entire world would be drowning in the pollen accumulation.
Wood can get petrified, which is basically the same as fossilization. Wood is still biodegradable.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 08 2019, @05:29AM (1 child)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporopollenin [wikipedia.org]
People wishing to "protect nature" would do well if they learn a bit about the ways nature really works.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday August 08 2019, @07:39PM
So pretty much what I was saying before
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"