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Comment by codesushi42 | Hacker News Reader

The pointless use of plastic is astounding. Just the other day I was sorting through electronic cables that were individually packaged in their own plastic bags. What the fuck was the point? Even the actual connector pins had their own dedicated plastic covers, and the cable was tied with a plastic tie. Yet the plastic bags were somehow still needed?

Jesus fucking Christ.

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The reason is that each cable in its own package is a separate SKU, purchased from a separate supplier, and tossed one-per on an assembly line that is filling the box you finally received. I suspect that if, say, samsung or nintendo was told to stop putting bags on every single cable, they'd just add a step to their assembly line for snipping open the existing bags and tossing them in the garbage.

The real solution will be (as usual) more complex than you'd guess at first, and I don't have a good idea for where you'd start. Maybe find the point in the supply chain where these baggies are first introduced and add a tax on them at that point?

To be fair, that would still be an improvement because we could make them isolate those bags and recycle or burn for energy or something. It is by comparison impossible to control what consumers do with those bags.

>if, say, samsung or nintendo was told to stop putting bags on every single cable...

Maybe, until they can rework the contract with the supplier to just receive the cables unpackaged.

That may be true, but in this case all of the cables were the same and from the same manufacturer.

There was no reason why the plastic bags were needed. None.

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