The EU ban on single-use plastics is insane | Hacker News Reader

The EU ban on single-use plastics is insane

13 pointsdusted24 comments

This continually grinds my gears.

We can't have plastic straws, yet, serving my milkshake is served (with the fundamentally broken paper straw) in a clear plastic cup, which could easily have been a paper cup.

I can't have a thin (sub grams of material) plastic bag for my greasy takeout to protect my car seat, so I have to buy the "reusable" plastic bag (multiple 10s of grams of material) only to throw it in the trash the minute I get inside.

My country does a great job collecting plastics, only to ship them off to be dumped in the ocean by third-world countries.

Grass trimming string was not banned.. How insane is it that I cannot use and then properly dispose of a straw, but it's entirely fine for me to literally grind hundreds of meters of plastic into microscopic particles and release them into the environment, no questions asked?

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So lets go the other way and say we need to ban _more_ single use plastics and also ban the export of waste. Every take out will happily fill your own container if you bring one.

I'm not sure the plastic cup is a great example. Plastic cups are easier to recycle than paper cups, since paper cups are plasticised on the inside - resulting in a mixed material that needs to be recycled separately.

If you come with a car anyway to get your takeout, why not just keep the reusable bag with you for next time? This may sound like a crazy idea, but I've heard that you can actually REUSE reusable bags.

You drive a car. You drive your car to a location where you can buy food that you want to eat in another place. You do not bring a reusable container. You do not keep single-use yet reusable stuff for later. You buy a drink that comes, for whatever reason, with a straw.

So I'm not sure how much we gain by banning plastic straws of all things. This in itself will not move any relevant metric into the right direction. But maybe, just maybe, starting with the small and everyday stuff we can wean us off the addiction to plastic. A mere 70 years ago there was virtually no plastic in use for any purpose. Think of that. Nowadays we demand our bags, straws, and yoghurt cups be made of plastic, because what else? And we put plastic to use in insane applications, like the grass trimmer you rightly mention. One might add plastic insulation foam that you are these days more or less required by law to wrap your entire building in (at least in Germany), even if it's an old house with 40cm thick brick walls. This are uncounted millions of cubic meters of plastic foam that is now being finely diluted over the entire country. If and when this society should collapse or degrade much of that plastic will as time passes come off and be blown all over the place like toxic snow. This law is always being asserted as being necessary "for the climate", "for the environment". From that point of view I can only agree that we're living in an insane society.

But then again you own and drive a car that you use so you can eat at home without cooking at home. You're part of the puzzle I'd say, like the rest of us.

AFAICT, the rationale for the single use plastics ban is mainly to keep them out of the oceans and the environment, not to reduce the production of plastic. Heavier plastics do not get transported by the wind as easily as lighter ones.

Your argument is that somehow in the EU the wind picks up and blows straws and bags into Indian oceans?

Are you trying to insinuate that the Indian ocean is the only water body with a plastic problem?

I was just talking to a friend recently about these new straws. I understand they may be better for the environment but they literally dissolve as I drink from them, and a lot of what's in them, or on them (like coloring), ends up inside me.

I admit I have no idea of the science behind any of these, but I feel a bit safer filling up a plastic landfill than absorbing all these chemicals all the time.

Then do not drink something requiring such a straw. Or bring your own stainless steel one. Or drink from the cup. Be creative!

Stainless steel straws was a solution we both agreed on! :)

I love my bamboo straws, too!

Depending on what you're sipping, glass may be better, but you'll need a little extra care to avoid breaking them.

Bought some glass straws for home use. They work well and look better than any other kind of straw I used.

Silicone are also an option, tho I use stainless. I don't have problem with paper straw tho. Do people drink their drink for hours or what?

Sounds like your milkshake shouldn't be served in a clear plastic cup. Maybe take that up with the milkshake provider?

Sounds like you've got a bad habit of throwing away reusable bags. Perhaps you need to reflect on how the first two parts of "Reduce. Reuse. Recycle." work.

Sounds like you are making stuff up about dumping plastic in the ocean without any evidence.

Sounds like grass-trimming string should be next on the list.

You got into the wrong echo chamber for this opinion piece, mate. I'm sure you found out by now.

You've got me looking at strimmers in a completely new light. :/

Most of the plastic lines are compostable (unsure if it breaks down into microplastics or actually something biodegradable)

Look how much you are complaining and those are just straws. Wait until people won't be allowed to buy cheap cars and will be forced to share public transportation with homeless, thieves and mentally ill people. Right wing populist parties are about to live through golden age of annoyed voters.

Your perceived entitlement to milkshakes and takeout is shining through. A first-world problem if I ever heard one.

Well, it's not that much of a problem for me, I just buy the "multi use" ones and use them a single time.. It's just silly, it makes me feel annoyed, because of this, I'm throwing away more plastic than I'd otherwise have.

Also, they pose a safety risk as they are hard and will cause much more damage to mouth and teeth than the softer ones if I stumble while using them.

The problem with plastic in the oceans is very real, not so much because a lot of single-use plastics are made, but because pretty much all plastic is not being properly disposed.

Re-usability may be low, but burn it hot enough and pollution is not a problem, if we did that in developed countries, we can do it responsibly while generating energy much needed for heating purposes.

Most of the plastic in the oceans is fishing nets[0]. Plastic isn't being shipped around the world to be dumped in the ocean, it's being dumped in the ocean by people fishing on the ocean.

To reduce plastic in the ocean, stop eating fish.

0. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/marinedebris/plastics-...

The point is you should _stop buying take-out if you notice the polution it causes_.

Not blame legislation for being imperfect. Blame the take-out people for not taking care of this planet.

Or blame yourself for being willing to polute the only livable planet known to humankind. For a milkshake.

Grass trimmer is a good one.

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