If it’s the second one, the answer is easy, fucking aluminum. We’ve had the answer forever and it still works great. Glass too, good for many applications.
Now the actual problem isn’t plastic bags or beverage containers though, it’s clothing and tires. Most clothing is plastic these days and tiny plastic fibers break up into micro plastics and take to the air or end up in the sea. Car tires are also just plastic these days, not rubber (which is arguably better for the environment than leveling rainforests for rubber tree plantations, sigh…), the tires rub off on the road like a pencil eraser on sandpaper. This also ends up in the air and sea.
So anyway, replacing plastic beverage containers is a great step, a no brainer, but it also doesn’t address the real problem at all. I hope that some day soon tires and clothes can start to be made with biodegradable “eco plastics”, but if that doesn’t turn out to be feasible, we’ll be in some serious trouble. And once we have some real, feasible, affordable replacements, then we need to actually outlaw the use of older plastic tires, in every country on the planet, despite heavy lobbying against any new measures from vested interests… I can’t even imagine how to make that happen. How did we do it with lead? Has every country outlawed lead in gas?
Even though leaded gasoline and leaded paint have been outlawed for decades in the US, it’s still a big problem in poor communities. Lots of old houses still have lead paint. Lead abatement is expensive and many people may not even know it’s something you need to do.
What’s replacing plastic. Good luck.
Do you mean what ubiquitous toxin will be next?
Or do you mean how can we get by without plastic?
If it’s the second one, the answer is easy, fucking aluminum. We’ve had the answer forever and it still works great. Glass too, good for many applications.
Now the actual problem isn’t plastic bags or beverage containers though, it’s clothing and tires. Most clothing is plastic these days and tiny plastic fibers break up into micro plastics and take to the air or end up in the sea. Car tires are also just plastic these days, not rubber (which is arguably better for the environment than leveling rainforests for rubber tree plantations, sigh…), the tires rub off on the road like a pencil eraser on sandpaper. This also ends up in the air and sea.
So anyway, replacing plastic beverage containers is a great step, a no brainer, but it also doesn’t address the real problem at all. I hope that some day soon tires and clothes can start to be made with biodegradable “eco plastics”, but if that doesn’t turn out to be feasible, we’ll be in some serious trouble. And once we have some real, feasible, affordable replacements, then we need to actually outlaw the use of older plastic tires, in every country on the planet, despite heavy lobbying against any new measures from vested interests… I can’t even imagine how to make that happen. How did we do it with lead? Has every country outlawed lead in gas?
Isn’t aluminum neurotoxic?
Just don’t grind it up into a powder and snort it and you should be fine.
Come to think of it, I would actually suggest the same for glass and plastic.
Even though leaded gasoline and leaded paint have been outlawed for decades in the US, it’s still a big problem in poor communities. Lots of old houses still have lead paint. Lead abatement is expensive and many people may not even know it’s something you need to do.
What did plastic replace? Good chance we can go back, if we can convince some people the line doesn’t need to go up. Good joke, everybody laughs…
What kind of generational hazard would you like to have growing up, kids? :D
Hopefully renewable, compostable/biodegradable plastics.
It’s the getting the old shit out of everything that will be the issue