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Post by the light works on Apr 3, 2018 14:32:50 GMT
The problem exists in countries that either have no recycling, or simply "Dont care", yes, confirmed, we here in the countries that DO care must teach them how, set example, and only send goods to them in trade that have recycled or bio-disposable packaging, and only accept the same in trade returns. If we simply refuse to allow goods from then in non recyclable containers, see how quick they change?. And then refuse to sell to them anything that would be used in the manufacture of non degradable non returnable non recyclable materials. Plastic bags?.. I suspect ban them completely and use tough p[aper recyclable materials instead. We CAN grow more trees.... Replanting the rain forest to keep up with world paper demands and doing it in a sustainable forestry way is a cash cow waiting to be milked. they don't cut down the rain forest to make paper. they cut down the rain forest to grow trees that they like to use to make paper. - or to grow things other than trees. the biggest issue is that sustainable is not a cash cow. sustainable has lower short term profit margins, and the mantra of business is now make as much money as fast as you can and bail out before it catches up to you. |
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Post by kharnynb on Apr 3, 2018 15:07:53 GMT
Finland has been growing sustainable forests for nearly 30 years now, and even before, replanting was the most common system.
With the reduction in need from newspapers and print in general, finnish forest are currently carbon sinks, it would be relatively easy to reactivate some of the 20+ inactive paper mills and produce for all of europe as much paper/cardboard packaging without losing carbon neutrality.
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Post by the light works on Apr 3, 2018 15:48:02 GMT
Finland has been growing sustainable forests for nearly 30 years now, and even before, replanting was the most common system. With the reduction in need from newspapers and print in general, finnish forest are currently carbon sinks, it would be relatively easy to reactivate some of the 20+ inactive paper mills and produce for all of europe as much paper/cardboard packaging without losing carbon neutrality. sustainable forestry is becoming more common in the US, too. but yield per acre is down because of it. the logging industry has actually, for the most part, become very forward thinking about sustainability. mostly through the realization that it is entirely possible for them to work themselves out of a job, and there isn't really anyplace further to get out to. |
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Post by c64 on Apr 3, 2018 18:33:00 GMT
Plastic bags are not the problem, why ban them? The problem is other stuff, mostly wrappers for food. And since people don't like spoiled or contaminated food, plastic it is. And other stuff which is likely to be thrown away as fast as possible, e.g. used diapers.
The rain forest is made of "random" but very special trees, you can't simply replant it since some of the trees can't be planted industrially. Also each area needs many hundreds of years to recover. There is more than just the trees, a lot of special plants and animals need a lot of time to get a foot into the ecco system.
The rain forest is destroyed for many reasons but none of them is paper! the classic reason is to obtain special wood. Wood with a fancy colour and wood which doesn't rot. It was used for fancy hardwood floors, furniture and especially for construction purposes.
The modern reason for destroying the rain forest is organic food. If you burn rain forest, you get super-fertilized land free of vermin for the food you want to grow. No artificial fertilizer and pesticides required and you can grow 100% organic food. This food is then flown around the world to hit the super markets really fresh. And if the soil becomes exhausted, you simply burn the next patch of rain forest to start over.
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Post by silverdragon on Apr 4, 2018 8:16:02 GMT
Over the weekend, we did a little foray into the area behind our Kitchen Bin.
In that area, a sanitized area, in that we frequently pull the bin out and clean, we store old plastic bags for re-using.
We use them as Bin liners, or as bags, or for whatever we want, even as much as packaging for items that need transport carefully, but, even though we now prefer reusable tough bags for shopping with, we still have quite a collection.
And I now can confirm that over time they will degrade.
We had to throw out the lower quarter of the stack because the plastic had degraded into a state of sticky feeble degradation that is semi-degraded plastic...
Yes that indicates a little on how long they had been there.
They went into the plastic recycling bin, of course.
But this raises a question, how many is too many?.
Plastic bags are the start, maybe not the full problem, maybe only the tip of an iceberg, but they have been the start, and through that conversation, we have started to realise our over-dependency on plastic.
Are they the problem?.
Well its like this, the Panda is not the entire problem of wildlife at risk, its just that it makes a bloody good Icon for the World Wildlife Fund.
And this is the same for the plastic bag, its a bloody good icon for the world education on over use of plastic?.
So yes, it is a problem, it stands for all the other miss-use of plastics, and therefore, its now an icon in its own right?.
This doesnt hide the fact that for whatever reasons the world forests have been destroyed, they are still destroyed, and we should, as the human race, address the elephant no longer in the room, that this is a problem.
"For what ever reason", should we not try to replace what has been taken, and even encourage sustainable forestry?..
There are vast swathes of missing forests that could be re-planted with some form of trees.
It may take many decades for the land to recover, but, if you start, you make that start, and making that start is the biggest step?.
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Post by silverdragon on Apr 4, 2018 8:19:01 GMT
How far we have drifted from tinning liquors?. priceless.... but keep it going?.
I dont see this as a problem in that the discussion on plastics and wood are refreshing, in that we are making conversation on this, but the question is, are we drifting into separate thread territory?.
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