#and the plastic to make them is not recyclable

[solarpunkbusiness]

In January 2023, the Danish city of Aarhus launched a three-year trial project to curb the number of disposable coffee cups. Instead of chucking them away, locals can use deposit machines designed by Norwegian waste management company TOMRA.

The pilot programme set out to collect 500,000 cups in its first year, a target that was far exceeded as cups were returned 735,000 times, saving 14 tonnes of plastic from incineration and CO2 emissions.

One year on, Aarhus is now able to share its first results, in the hope more cities will follow suit.

The pilot did not only require building machines, deciding where to place them and creating the recyclable cups. Changing consumer behaviours was a necessary step to make the ‘reuse revolution’ happen. 

To convince citizens, the initiative was initially supported by 45 cafes which agreed to only sell drinks in these cups, not giving consumers the choice to buy single-use plastic cups. 

In the first weeks, the return rate was only around 25 per cent and it made Rossau doubt the system would pick up. For reusable cups to be a better alternative to their single-use counterparts they need to be recycled at least six times, reaching a return rate of 82 per cent.

A turning point came during the city’s week-long festival Aarhus Uke in September, where retailers in the event exclusively offered the reuse cups. Many more citizens were exposed to them and around 100,000 cups were returned, an amount which would have filled 1,200 trash bins.

The event, says Rossau, was useful for behavioural change as it familiarised a larger part of the population with the new recyclable product. 

“We now see shifts in behaviour. We see people going with bags full of cups, which means they recycle in bulk, like for cans and bottles,” says Rossau. “Now we can see the return rate is 88 per cent, which means a cup is reused 44 times.

Euronews 11 Jan 2025

[heresiae]

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A post shared by Brian Moller | B Mo the Prince (@bmotheprince)

guys, wtf is this shit? are you kidding me?

NO.

put that away and leave it in the past.

first of all, where would you record your cassettes? do you want to buy a bulky stereo, turn on the radio and painfully wait for the song you want to record only to it to be cut by few seconds at the beginning and the end by the DJ talk?

do you want to directly buy official cassettes only for them to melt the first time you left them in your car (and lose the cover immediately btw).

or do you want to buy a bunch of CDs only to record them on cassettes? (because good luck in finding a pc with still a CD burner).

do you want to bring with you a bunch of them while traveling or just walking around because we are so used now to listen to very diverse music for a very long time? (you'll literally have to walk with a bag pack half filled with those to have the same variety)

do you want to experience the the "joy" of finding the magnetic tape all twisted by the gears or the slowing down of the music while your battery dies?

do you want to be constantly careful on how you handle the player because as soon as it get its first damage it's just downhill from there? (buttons and the door will be the firsts to go).

do you really want to incentive another useless exploitation of not recyclable plastic?

if you don't want to stream just get mp3. they're still an option you know?

now, mp3 players I'm all for it, go nuts.

[thedisablednaturalist]

People who are worried they aren't helping with climate change or any other big world problem bc they do something like make video games or art or are a cashier at a grocery store:

You are helping. You are making the art that helps me, an environmentalist actively working to restore biodiversity and ecosystems, get through each day. You are helping those of us on the front lines enjoy living or take a well-needed break. The person loading my groceries into my car is making it so I can eat that week and have enough energy to do my work. If you want to do more, you can volunteer, donate, and boost the voices of local community leaders working to protect and restore the local ecosystems, but don't feel bad if you can't. We are all in this together.

[otteroflore]

I watched a video by a guy who made a dupe of a very expensive all-plastic chair and had done one other video and he was like "guys i am NOT providing the file i do NOT want them to sue me"

and i thought that was pretty funny cause

1. as people pointed out in the comments the design was very easy to replicate in almost any 3D modeling program. The guy kind of struggled with it because he was new to 3D modeling (no shame! we all start somewhere) but... yeahhhh an experienced artist could make that fairly easily.

2. duplicating 3D models and providing the designs to people is what i do. (although tbf a very "fancy" business might be more s.l.a.p. happy than a business who stopped producing those molds ages ago)

3. although i support paying designers/artists well, there is something a touch... say, ironic... about selling something that is just an injection molded plastic lawn chair for $1200

[arctic-hands]

Is it infuriating my disabled, food-allergy having ass who doesn't live near a grocery store within walking distance on a good day has to order groceries from Amazon in order to survive? Yes. Do their new silver-foil insulation bags for frozen things mean I now have free wrapping paper for birthdays and holidays? Also yes

[foxglove-garden]

I went to New Jersey today and decided that I hate it there.

No plastic straws. Anywhere. Just paper straws that melt and feel horrible against my skin.

It's like the entire state hates autistic people. How the hell do you ban plastic straws?

[aliosne]

ADHDcore is clearing your bedside table at 1:30am after ??? months, including clearing half the OTC meds you own, a dozen candies you don’t like that are covered in dust, and like ten unopened pieces of mail

[psychoticallytrans]

Here's something that a lot of thin people don't know about being fat: you have to be very careful, these days, what the weight limit on your furniture is. So much is made of particleboard or even cardboard or flimsy plastic, and it may be great for the environment for things to be made of recycled materials, but it can easily leave fat people in the incredibly humiliating situation of breaking a chair by sitting on it, or a table by leaning on it. It also creates an effective "fat tax" on furniture, since the more solid materials tend to cost more.

When I was looking for loft beds to make my apartment effectively larger, the majority of them had a weight limit of 200 pounds, including the weight of the mattress. That puts a weight limit on the person of roughly 150 pounds, and that presumes a light mattress. That's not taking into account blankets, pillows, and stuffies, which can easily rack up a weight of around ten to twenty pounds without much trouble, bringing the safe weight for a person down to roughly 140 to 130 pounds. The ones that held more than that had a steep increase in price, with ones that held 300 pounds costing roughly 600$ more than the 200 pound ones, and the 400 pound ones, which I wanted for tolerances, ran a good 800$ more on average than the ones for 200 pounds.

More generally, solid wood, metal, tempered glass, and thick, durable plastic cost more than particleboard, cardboard, and flimsy plastic. They are also far more likely to be safe for fat people to use.

If you are a thin person and want fat people to be comfortable when visiting you, invest in furniture that is clearly made with sturdy materials. Having to brush off standing the whole visit is embarrassing both for us and, if you are a host who cares about the comfort of guests, for you.

[teaboot]

I feel like if you're using a lot of disposable plastic bags in your day to day life, you've gotta do something sustainable to make up for it. Like using bamboo toilet paper or eco friendly cat litter or something, yknow

Honestly I exaggerate for comedic effect, while I DO routinely use ziplock bags to hold spaghetti I cook maybe once a month and the bag itself is usually for freezer storage. I actually throw out maybe one bag a week? I DO hate washing plates and tupperware and junk but that usually just means I eat sandwiches without a plate.

I agree though that needless waste should be avoided, and I do avoid it- biodegradable bags and recyclables, empty butter tubs used to store leftovers, etc.

This said, though, not applicable necessarily for myself but for a lot of others- I feel that it's importat to remember that there are many people who legitimately NEED things like plastic straws, or catheters, or pre-packaged foods

And the idea that that's a moral failing that individuals need to personally make up for when a single billionaire blows out more CO2 in a long weekend than I will in my whole life on a superjet meet-cute in the Bolivian rainforest between humvee drag races funded by the river-polluting textiles plants they planted in a third world country to avoid EPA laws and give an entire village stillbirths and stomach cancer is an idea that those very same bigwigs have spent a LOT of time and money investing in planting in the public psyche.

Like- Glass bottles are infinitely recyclable, so why are so many drinks in plastic now? Loads of drinks manufacturers used to buy them back and clean them for re-use, so why did they stop? If they chose to make something out of a limited and environmentally irresponsible material, why is it my failing to track down a correct process of disposal for them? What if there are none in my area? Do I lobby for more recycling plants in my area? Do I set aside some of my limited time outside the pain factory of my job- which I have more than one of, thanks to rising costs of things just like that drink I just emptied- to properly dispose of this company's waste FOR them?

Say coca-cola just rolled up to your town and started dumping millions of empty plastic bottles in the street, going, "wow, you should really think about building and staffing a recycling depot, it would be really shameful of you to just put these in the trash." When companies purposefully use materials with limited lifespans- because yes, even plastic can only be reused so many times- and tell you it's your own fault if it harms the environment- that's essentially what they're doing, just with more steps.

Yes, its important to be as environmentally concious as we can in our day to day life, but responsible sustainability is not catholicism. We don't get good boy points from our lord and savior Captain Planet every time the average low-income household gathers together to hold hands and repent for a single-use plastic that allows them to access something they need.

Entire families could eat trees and shit dead lithium batteries for years and still not do as much damage to the planet as an average dye plant or braindead celebrity does in a week just for fun, and I'm mad about it

...this went on longer than intended.

TL/DR: DO recycle and minimize waste, but don't beat yourself up over the little waste you can't avoid, and follow the money.

EDIT: Part 2

[the-simple-diamond-bunny]

I Got about 5 yards of fabric twine in this ball and it’s smaller than a tennis ball. It’s a work in progress, I’m gonna make it as big as a basket ball. Stay tuned.

(Part 2)

[welliguessimin]

I make up for the lack of curses and rage in my day to day life by firing off a rant consisting off 50% swears and 50% curses when I do get pissed off and feel comfortable expressing it.

[darkspace7]

Confession: Sometimes I take people’s plastic water bottles when they’re not looking and refill them (never all the way though, just enough to slip under the owner’s radar) with tap water.

That way, when they take a swig I get the satisfaction of knowing not only can they not tell the difference between tap and bottled water but the fact they get a little bit of extra hydration to get them through the day.

[3liza]

we gotta figure out the prescription bottle recycling thing man I get like 12 of them every month and it's an enormous amount of single use plastic that is going directly into landfills and the ocean. there's zero reason for pharmacies not to have empty bottle dropoffs, it's dry storage and easy to clean. one problem is plastic gets micro scratches and dings in it that make it difficult or impossible to sanitize to a medical standard, which would be solved by switching to glass bottles, but then glass causes transport problems with weight and fragility. I've researched this and the only way to recycle prescription bottles in my city is to, on your own, mail them somewhere that will do it for you. I think some of the privatized recycling services will do the same thing but I'm deeply suspicious of those services and suspect most of them are not actually recycling anything. the recycling infrastructure is so bad in the USA and the majority of our plastic recycling is not actually happening, it's just fake garbage sorting that ends up in landfills anyway. we HAVE to go back to using glass for everything, plastic recycling is a dead end.

[acti-veg]

Leather vs. Pleather: 8 Myths Debunked

Since we are all beyond tired of seeing the same regurgitated leather posts every day, I've compiled and briefly debunked some of the most common myths peddled about leather and pleather… So hopefully we can all move on to talk about literally anything else.

1) Leather is not sustainable.

Approximately 85% of all leather (almost all leather you'll find in stores) is tanned using chromium. During the chrome tanning process, 40% of unused chromium salts are discharged in the final effluents, which makes it's way into waterways and poses a serious threat to wildlife and humans. There are also significant GHG emissions from the sheer amount of energy required to produce and tan leather.

Before we even get the cow's hide, you first need to get them to slaughter weight, which is a hugely resource-intensive process. Livestock accounts for 80% of all agricultural land use, and grazing land for cattle likely represents the majority of that figure. To produce 1 pound of beef (and the subsequent hide), 6-8 pounds of feed are required. An estimated 86% of the grain used to feed cattle is unfit for human consumption, but 14% alone represents enough food to feed millions of people. On top of that, one-third of the global water footprint of animal production is related to cattle alone. The leather industry uses greenwashing to promote leather as an eco-friendly material. Leather is often marketed as an eco-friendly product, for example, fashion brands often use the Leather Working Group (LWG) certificate to present their leather as sustainable. However, this certification (rather conveniently) does not include farm-level impacts, which constitute the majority of the negative environmental harm caused by leather.

2) Leather is not just a byproduct.

Some cows are raised speciifically for leather, but this a minority and usually represents the most expensive forms of leather. This does not mean that leather is just a waste product of beef and dairy, or that it is a completely incidental byproduct; it is more accurate to call leather a tertiary product of the beef and dairy industries. Hides used to fetch up to 50% of the total value of the carcass, this has dropped significantly since COVID-19 to only about 5-10%, but this is recovering, and still represents a significant profit margin. Globally, leather accounts for up to 26% of major slaughterhouses’ earnings. Leather is inextricably linked to the production of beef and dairy, and buying leather helps make the breeding, exploitation and slaughter of cows and steers a profitable enterprise.

3) Leather is not as biodegradable as you think.

Natural animal hides are biodegradable, and this is often the misleading way leather that sellers word it. "Cow hide is fully biodegradable" is absolutely true, it just purposely leaves out the fact that the tanning process means that the hide means that leather takes between 25 and 40 years to break down. Even the much-touted (despite it being a tiny portion of the market) vegetable-tanned leather is not readily biodegradable. Since leather is not recyclable either, most ends up incinerated, or at landfill. The end-of-life cycle and how it relates to sustainability is often massively overstated by leather sellers, when in fact, it is in the production process that most of the damage is done.

4) Leather is not humane.

The idea that leather represents some sort of morally neutral alternative to the evils of plastic is frankly laughable, at least to anyone who has done even a little bit of research into this exploitative and incredibly harmful industry. Cows, when properly cared for, can live more than fifteen years. However, most cows are usually slaughtered somewhere around 2-3 years old, and the softest leather, most luxurious leather comes from the hide of cows who are less than a year old. Some cows are not even born before they become victim to the industry. Estimates vary, but according to an EFSA report, on average 3% of dairy cows and 1.5 % of beef cattle, are in their third-trimester of pregnancy when they are slaughtered.

Slaughter procedures vary slightly by country, but a captive bolt pistol shot to the head followed by having their throats slit, while still alive, is standard industry practice. This represents the “best” a slaughtered cow can hope for, but many reports and videos exist that suggest that cows still being alive and conscious while being skinned or dismembered on the production line is not uncommon, some of these reports come from slaughterhouse workers themselves.

5) Leather often involves human exploitation.

The chemicals used to tan leather, and the toxic water that is a byproduct of tanning, affect workers as well as the environment; illness and death due to toxic tanning chemicals is extremely common. Workers across the sector have significantly higher morbidity, largely due to respiratory diseases linked to the chemicals used in the tanning process. Exposure to chromium (for workers and local communities), pentachlorophenol and other toxic pollutants increase the risk of dermatitis, ulcer nasal septum perforation and lung cancer.

Open Democracies report for the Child Labour Action Research Programme shows that there is a startlingly high prevalence of the worst forms of child labour across the entire leather supply chain. Children as young as seven have been found in thousands of small businesses processing leather. This problem is endemic throughout multiple countries supplying the global leather market.

6) Pleather is not a ‘vegan thing’.

Plastic clothing is ubiquitous in fast fashion, and it certainly wasn’t invented for vegans. Plastic leather jackets have been around since before anyone even knew what the word vegan meant, marketing department have begun describing it as ‘vegan leather’ but it’s really no more a vegan thing than polyester is. Most people who wear pleather are not vegan, they just can’t afford to buy cow’s leather, which remains extremely expensive compared to comparable fabrics.

It is striking how anti-vegans consistently talk about how ‘not everyone can afford to eat plant-based’ and criticise vegans for advocating for veganism on that basis, yet none of them seem to mind criticisms directed at people for wearing a far cheaper alternative than leather. You can obviously both be vegan and reduce plastic (as we all should), but vegans wear plastic clothing for the same reason everyone else does: It is cheaper.

7) Plastic is not the only alternative.

When engaging in criticism of pleather, the favourite tactic seems to be drawing a false dilemma where we pretend the only options are plastic and leather. Of course, this is a transparent attempt to draw the debate on lines favourable to advocates of leather, by omitting the fact that you can quite easily just buy neither one.

Alternatives include denim, hemp, cork, fiber, mushroom fiber, cotton, linen, bamboo, recycled plastic, and pinatex, to name a few. Alternatives exist for everything from materials designed to ensure sub-zero temperatures and specialist motorcycle equipment. There are exceptions in professions like welding, where an alternative can be difficult to source, but nobody needs a jacket, shoes or a bag that looks like leather. For most of us, leather is a luxury item that doesn’t even need to be replaced at all.

If you'd like to see a detailed summary of the comparison between leather/wool and plastic, as well as the available alternatives, you can find that here.

8) Leather is not uniquely long-lasting.

The longevity of leather is really the only thing it has going for it, environmentally speaking. Replacing an item less often means fewer purchases, and will likely have a lower environmental impact than one you have to replace regularly. Leather is not unique in this respect, however, and the idea that it is, is mostly just effective marketing.

As your parents will tell you, a well-made denim jacket can last a lifetime. Hemp and bamboo can both last for decades, as can cork and pinatex. Even cotton and linen can last for many years when items are looked after well. While some materials are more hard wearing than others, how long an item will last is mostly the result of how well made the product is and how well it is maintained, not whether or not the item is leather.

[canonkiller]

sometimes I think about how fan made merch has changed in the last few years and like. I'll admit maybe it's a fable grapes situation at least in part (my limitations keeping me from getting into physical merch production) and I've done a few small things in my time (charms, stickers, I have a Redbubble, y'know) so I don't intend to be like preachy about it but it's like . man idk isn't there enough

like I get that shit's easier to make than ever. you get charms, standees, clothes, plushies, all pretty standardized decent quality, made to order, straight to home. but more and more I can't stop myself from feeling like too much has changed. there's a lot of difference between one person's handmade oven clay charms at the artist alleys of conventions close to them vs having a travel schedule to all the major meetups so you can set up a mass produced enamel pin booth at each one. this isn't even touching on the working conditions of the people who do have to make the actual items, or the ecological impact of that much shipping and plastic.

I don't know. I guess I just kind of wish people stuck to making what they can actually make rather than just being a storefront for some small batch manufacturer. I wish we could do more recycling. if you want a charm of your blorbo why not learn how to make one for yourself instead of buying one. idk

[reasonsforhope]

"At the University of Maine, one of the world’s largest 3D printers is using sawdust from the state’s lumber industry to 3D print cozy wooden cabins.

It’s part of a move towards making 3D printing faster and more sustainable in a state where the housing shortage that has metastasized in most states around the country is dire.

It’s thought that 80,000 new homes will be needed over the next 5 years to keep pace with demand, and though it takes years for building codes to be changed, the technicians at the Advanced Structures & Composites Center (ASCC) at the Univ. of Maine hope their new toy can help address this need.

Guinness World Records certified the machine at ASCC as the world’s largest prototype polymer 3D printer, capable of creating a 600 square foot house 96 feet in length, 36 feet in width, and 18 feet tall entirely out of bio-based material at a rate of 500 pounds per hour.

In 2022, it could print the walls, floors, and roof of the house in just 96 hours, but the ACSS has been refining the design with the hope of doubling the printing speed and getting it down to a 48-hour timeline.

“When they’re doing concrete, they’re only printing the walls,” Habib Dagher, the executive director of ACSS told CNN. “The approach we’ve taken is quite different from what you’ve seen, and you’ve been reading about for years.”

Indeed, GNN has reported on a fair number of 3D printing projects, but most if not all involve printing only the walls. One fantastical exception is an Italian firm that is 3D-printing domed, beehive-like, modular concept homes inspired by the Great Enclosure in Zimbabwe.

STAND-OUT 3D-PRINTING PROJECTS: 

First 2-Story Home to be 3D Printed in the U.S. Reaches for the Sky in Texas 

The World’s Largest 3D Printed Building is a Horse Barn That Can Endure Florida Hurricanes

This 23-Year-Old Founder is 3D Printing Schools in Madagascar Aiming to be a ‘Stepping Stone’ for the Community

A Startup Is Using Recycled Plastic to 3D Print Tiny $25,000 Prefabricated Homes in LA

The ASCC is calling the house design the BioHome3D, and says it’s rare people who tour the concept version don’t ask when they “can have one up?”

The interior gives the feel of a modern Scandinavian wooden cabin, making it fit well with the Maine aesthetic. The ASCC is now doing work on how to incorporate conduits for wiring and plumbing “exactly where an architect would want them,” says Dagher.

WATCH a time-lapse video of the printer doing the job…

-via Good News Network, August 16, 2024. Video via The University of Maine, March 3, 2023.