galacticzgazr

[wachinyeya]

Washington State Bans Single-Use Foam That Breaks up and Pollutes Waterways for Orcas and Salmon https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/washington-state-bans-single-use-foam-that-breaks-up-and-pollutes-waterways-for-orcas-and-salmon/

[you-need-not-apply]

bad straws

pros and cons about straws

Plastic straws:

CONS: can never be properly recycled, last for centuries, never fully degrade, single-use, pollution, harmful to wildlife, plastic poisoning / micro plastic have a direct route to body

PROS: single use so slightly more hygienic, good for some disabled people who have issues with motor skills

Paper straws:

CONS: cant be recycled, sometimes contain plastics, emit greenhouse gas when they break down, can be bitten through by those with issues with motor skills, can go soggy fast

PROS: biodegradable, renewable, safe, hygienic and durable

Metal straws:

CONS: can conduct heat and become very hot if used with hot beverages, stiff, hygiene issues,

PROS: highly durable, can be cleaned 100% via boiling (cleaner then plastic!!) non toxic, long lasting, reusable, recyclable if broken

Silicon straws:

CONS: sometimes have a plastic taste similar to single use plastic, food can stick to them, sometimes aren't bendable,

PROS: non toxic, very easy to clean, long lasting, non plastic, reusable, safe, come in all sizes and shapes

wood/bamboo straws:

CONS: can spoil and rot, not as safe, deforestation especially if not bamboo, least hygienic, stiff, greenhouse gas when it breaks down

PROS: reusable, can break down, if bamboo it will be naturally antibacterial, so they're hygienic.

[reasonsforhope]

YES, PLASTIC BAG BANS HELP PREVENT POLLUTION REALLY WELL

"Plastic bags are everywhere - littering our streets, clogging up our rivers, and choking wildlife in the ocean.

But after years of campaigning from environmental groups, many places have banned them entirely.

Over 100 countries now have a full or partial ban on single-use plastic bags. Between 2010 and 2019, the number of public policies intended to phase out plastic carryout bags tripled.

The results of such tough rules are starting to show.

What is a plastic bag ban?

A plastic bag ban is a law that restricts the use of lightweight plastic bags in shops. Sometimes they are totally banned, and sometimes consumers have to pay a fee to buy them.

The bans often only apply to thin plastic bags, with thicker, reusable ones still available for purchase.

Bangladesh became the first country to introduce a ban on plastic bags back in 2002.

Such total bans are common throughout Africa and Asia. These areas import much of the Global North’s ‘recyclable’ rubbish and so face the consequences of plastic mismanagement more acutely.

In addition to plastic bags, many countries ban other types of single-use plastic like in the EU which has got rid of single use cutlery, straws, balloon sticks, and coffee buds.

Which European countries use the most plastic bags?

In Europe, 18 countries have imposed bans on thin plastic bags - including France, Germany, Italy, Iceland, and Albania.

A further 23 countries require consumers to pay a fee. Two more - Switzerland and Norway - allow the plastic industry to impose a ‘voluntary charge’ on the use of the bags.

Plastic bag consumption is highest in the Baltic and Nordic countries, Eurostat data from 2019 reveals. Latvia (284 bags per person, per year) and Lithuania (332) consumed far more plastic bags than any other European country. This could change, however as from 2025, Latvian shops will no longer be permitted to give away free plastic bags. A similar prohibition will come into force in Lithuania this year.

The lowest plastic bag usage can be found in Portugal (8), Belgium (17) and Poland (23).  Portugal banned the bags in 2021, two years after Poland. [Note: To be clear, that is 8 plastic bags per person per year! Way lower than I thought was currently possible!]

Do plastic bag bans work?

Plastic bag bans have so far been highly successful. A ban on thin plastic bags in California reduced consumption by 71.5 per cent.

Research shows that taxes work too. According to a 2019 review of existing studies, levies and taxes led to a 66 per cent reduction in usage in Denmark, more than 90 per cent in Ireland, between 74 and 90 per cent in South Africa, Belgium, Hong Kong, Washington D.C., Santa Barbara, the UK and Portugal, and around 50 per cent in Botswana and China.

And the impact is visible on the ground too.

At a 2022 annual beach clean in New Jersey, US - where a ban was recently introduced - the number of plastic bags collected dropped 37 per cent on the previous year. Straws and takeaway containers dropped by a similar amount.

“It’s really, really encouraging to see those numbers trending down for the bags, straws, and foam containers,” said Clean Ocean Action Executive Director Cindy Zipf. Clean Ocean Action is a charity that is instrumental in organising the beach clean."

-via EuroNews.Green, 4/5/23

[brooklynmuseum]

Diamonds are forever, but so is plastic trash. 🎣💞

Look closely and you’ll see these lovely lures are no ordinary bait and tackle. As part of DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash, Duke Riley fashioned DIY fishing lures out of plastic collected from the Brooklyn waterfront as well as trash from the streets of New York City.The tube of lipstick at-center seems quite apropos. Happy #ValentinesDay, everyone! 

See the inventive ways Riley salvaged single-use plastic in the context of contemporary environmental dilemmas as part of #DukeRileyBkM through April 23. 

📷 Courtesy of Duke Riley Studio 

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The B.C. government says several single-use plastic items will be phased out by December as part of new rules aimed at tackling plastic pollution.

On Friday, provincial Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy George Heyman announced details of the new rules, which have been in the works since an intentions paper on the issue was published last April.

Starting in December, single-use items such as plastic shopping bags, disposable food service accessories, oxo-degradable plastics and food service packaging made of polystyrene foam, PVC, PVDC, compostable or biodegradable plastics will no longer be allowed to be sold in B.C.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[starthistleparadise]

Lack of variety, but that’s okay! September 27th, 2024

[timmurleyart]

Happy earth day to the earth. 🌎🎂🍰

[bacteriaeatingmybrain]

I found myself feeling guilty about how the plastic of medication bottles is hard if not impossible to recycle, and how my daily injections come in individual vials for each day, and the syringes, and their wrapping. But that’s fucked up and I have to remind myself,

No one should ever feel bad about the trash their medications create.

No one. I don’t care how much single use plastic it takes.

Your life is worth more than the trash you create

[wild-at-mind]

Why are some online people still carrying on an imaginary crusade against the eeeeeevil environmental activists who salivate at the thought of banning all the plastic in the world so disabled people who need it can’t use it? I assumed everyone understood the plastic drinking straw ban to be a very token gesture by governments, as in ‘ok we will ban this one plastic product to try and look virtuous’ and instead of being like ‘this is a token gesture to distract from how governments are not doing anything about these massive environmental issues’, people went ‘FUCK these environmental activists for demanding the plastic drinking straw be banned!’ It’s weird because online people are normally pretty good at spotting that kind of distraction tactic by governments and corporations. When it comes to where the idea for the ban actually came from, I had a look because I didn’t know, but had a feeling it wasn’t any of the big lobbying groups. Sure enough the issue was apparently originally raised by a 9 year old in the US. With all respect to that kid (who is an adult now), it does seem like the kind of thing that would get picked up by the press as a cute story and turned into policy.

It is a shit situation to have to bring your own plastic drinking straw around everywhere you might have a drink, I sympathise greatly. And I’m not saying no individual activist has ever been shitty about this, or not understood why a disabled person might need a plastic drinking straw. But in my experience, environmental activists don’t really talk much about individual plastic products, or do much about it beyond making their own choices to use refill shops etc, if they are able to do so. Generally the hot button debates are things like: nuclear power, yay or nay? Kind of bigger picture stuff, you know?

I was so surprised that the online consensus was that environmental activists were out to destroy everything disabled poeple need. I kind of worry that bystanders, who are not involved in IRL environmental activism and are not disabled themselves, will just assume that this is the case. I really, really do not think that it is, and also like with my post about JSO I want to caution against the idea that any change will be bad for social justice reasons...no. What we actually need to do is have a system where people use things according to their need. If only disabled people drove cars along the road outside my house, my lungs would not be in the state they are. (The pollution grime collects thick on my windows.) Imagine if we had a trust system, where only people who needed to use something we may someday have a very limited supply of used it, and people who had other options that were slightly less convenient used those? I don’t know if such a thing is possible in the society we currently have, because of the way people are, but I can dream. But you see how you can get into a trap of thinking ‘changing something could be bad so we should change nothing’. The all or nothing approach is the problem.

[k00279452]

Digital Cut Out Animation

Carrying on the images of the bag and water bottle fish , i created an cut out animation . I wanted to use the leftover prints i made for the cyanotype.

I planned a story board, visualizing the composition. I wanted the apocalyptic fish going in the opposite direction of the bag , to represent the disruption of the natural environment. The black and white has an eerie quality to it , while the hint of blue on the plastic bag draws attention to it , showings it doesn't belong.

I created the water sound in my sink at home and added it on through premiere pro . I liked how it turned out , ideally I would like there to be more going on , but it would take too long and I don’t have that time . The movement of the fish are a little ridged.

[you-need-not-apply]

I have seen to many posts with shit like “who cares if I use (plastic item here) Taylor swift is using a private jet to travel 4 meters!!”

First of all; completely different fucking issues.

Single use plastic waste is a direct contaminator of the environment, like pesticides and fertilisers that contain harmful chemicals. “It’s just one (plastic item)” says 600 million people. It adds up.

Taylor swifts jet releases CO2 emissions contributing to an increased green house affect. This causes rapid climate change when in large (and I mean large, if she was all by herself and no other co2 emissions it would not matter) amounts.

My second third and fourth point are basically

2- you fucking idiot

3- Taylor swift isn’t in the top 10 contributors of co2 emissions stop that shit

4- “ooo lemme kill some animal it don’t matter as someone else is doing same thing this won’t hurt anyone ooo”

Get fucked you half mangled Seastar with the seas grass still sticking to you. Hope someone doesn’t throw you back into the water:

[motherearthday]

INC-4 on plastic pollution: Press Conference.

Press conference at the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-4) taking place from 23-29 April 2024 at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, Canada.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A Montreal municipal bylaw banning the use of single-use plastic items comes into effect today, with glasses, stir sticks, straws and utensils among the items that will be prohibited.

The ban also applies to polystyrene or compostable plastic products, whether used on-site in restaurants or for takeout, with the only exception being trays for raw meat and fish.

The bylaw was passed 18 months ago and covers the 19 boroughs that make up the city of Montreal, with officials estimating some 8,400 businesses will be affected.

There are certain exceptions, including for non-profit groups like charities or organizations that deliver meals to vulnerable people. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[starthistleparadise]

Good variety! September 26th, 2024.