Hacker News Reader

Comment by Skunkleton | Hacker News Reader

> Many of the poorest billion simply do not realize that it is against their interest not to, for example, dump chemicals and trash in water they drink from and bathe in. Or just simply that littering is a problem.

To be fair to the poorest billion, the richest billion also doesn't really get this either.

View on HN

Indeed, how's the water in Michigan, and even "recycling" in the US means the trash gets shipped to Asia/Africa to be burned.

It's "lack of information" or in this case being mislead by whoever promised them their recycling is contributing to being green...

I was so disappointed when I found out that this is how my recycling was being handled. I had this image in my head of my plastic waste being recirculated and reused that was so completely false.

As I understand it, recycling is just the long road to the landfill.

I am currently reading a book on recycling that disputes that narrative (Junkyard Planet by Adam Minter). The main argument is that shipping a container of "recycling material" across the oceans costs real money (much more than a local landfill), that somebody paid. That somebody surely isn't paying for the junk just to burn it.

What is true is that recycling methods can sometimes be cruel. The example is a guy recycling Christmas lights in China. At first all they did was burn the plastic away to get to the copper. Later, when demand for plastic in China was also rising, they invented methods to also recycle the plastic.

Burning the plastic away was of course very dirty. And in other places (like Africa), dirty methods might be still more common.

And on a per capita, probably pollutes a lot more (I have no data on this). We just can afford to keep it out of _our_ water.

I'm conflicted about this. As an American we are voracious consumers and highly ineffecient about it but I've been repeatedly shocked in trips to Taiwan and Vietnam about how the consumption there seemed frequently even more wasteful than what I was used to back home, especially in terms of plastic packaged in plastic packaged in plastic Russian doll scenarios that seemed totally egregious but really common.

On the other hand I think it's a little bit easier to notice when it's not your culture for some reason so maybe I'm biased.

I think Taiwan would rank closer to the top billion than the bottom, so maybe supports my thought?

This is sadly true although I think many in the rich world know but are in denial or choose to be lazy. There are really people out there though who just have never been exposed to the idea that you shouldn't do this stuff.

I doubt it's 'denial', it's more a calculation :

    if ($fakeDenial === $moreMoneyThanModifyingBehavior) { 
       $changingCourse = null; 
    }

Reply on news.ycombinator.com