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Comment by llampx | Hacker News Reader

As a consumer and a tourist, I was appalled at the amount of plastic being used everywhere (Thailand and Vietnam). Pineapple by the slice from a kiosk? Wrapped in plastic. Bubble tea? Plastic container and straw, along with a little plastic bag. Groceries? Plastic galore.

I do know though, that on a per-capital level, the Western world still produces more waste, but there was no thought of hey maybe this much plastic is bad?

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> Pineapple by the slice from a kiosk? Wrapped in plastic. Bubble tea? Plastic container and straw, along with a little plastic bag. Groceries? Plastic galore.

Sounds like the USA too. Things have only started to change in the last 2 years or so, as some municipalities start banning plastic bags and foam food containers, and companies like Starbucks are starting to put on a show of biodegradability.

Meanwhile now we have paper straws coated in PFAS. We definitely don't need the plastic bags, but I'd rather have the plastic straws!

Free plastic grocery bags have been banned for years in the EU and it couldn't be better. It makes me all the more so annoyed at food packaging (since it's the only thing you see stuck in roadside bushes nowadays).

Yes that's what I mean, per capita the Western world leads in waste and plastic usage. Can't help but think that if Asia and Africa were at a similar income level, they would be as high or higher on the waste scale, i.e. the poorer populations in Asia pull down the average vs the city-dwelling middle classes.

I thought the bag banning was the wrong thing myself. I always reused my grocery bags as trash bags, now I have to buy trash bags...which seem like they use more plastic. But maybe most people don't use them that way.

I did this too, but I only needed a trash bag like once a week, and inevitably ended up with more than that, before I got diligent about reusable bags. Even if everyone did it, there's no way every bag would be accounted for.

Is it perhaps a workaround for poor sanitation? All that plastic isn’t free so I’d assume there is a reason they do it.

The food doesn't become sanitary by coming in contact with plastic. I do believe it is a proxy for sanitary conditions though and that explains at least some of the usage.

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