Hacker News Reader

Comment by BadassFractal | Hacker News Reader

Not sure much can be done here without global investment and adherence to never dumping plastics that are not biodegradable.

The solution must be possible, but finding the will and the support to convince every country in the world to switch sounds incredibly tough.

The US could flex its economic muscle here and say that it will not accept products from abroad unless they're packaged according to its new standards within the next 5 years. And of course adhere to the standards internally as well to take a global lead on this issue.

View on HN

> global investment and adherence to never dumping plastics that are not biodegradable.

Or not producing the unnecessary packaging in the first place. We really don't need every single cucumber wrapped in its own plastic film. (Like it's common in the shops recently...) Lots of other packaging is completely useless as well.

We may not strictly need it, but it is there for a reason. Be it less pesticides (my organic cucumbers come wrapped, the non-organic don't) or less waste (because damaged cucumbers are thrown away).

The real question is, how does the plastic end up in the ocean? Bonus points for: can there be a biodegradable replacement?

The plastic in the ocean is mainly fishing nets that are discarded there because its easier

Those wrapped cucumbers last longer on the shelf and at home.

They don't spend much time on the shelf at the grocery store. They last longer in the supply chain, which means they can be shipped from farther, where it is even cheaper to produce. Make no mistake, the plastic wrap is there for one reason and one reason alone: to allow producers to make more fucking money.

Take a canvas bag, wet it, put your vegetables in it, put the bag into the fridge - they'll last weeks. You can do this with a plastic wrap as well... but why?

There's no such thing as "biodegradable" plastics. Plant-based plastics only biodegrade in commercial composting facilities. This is not something that's commonly known.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com