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0 pointslm284696y ago0 comments

> it is unlikely that microplastics being used in say Denmark has the same environmental impact as microplastics being used in say Asia or Africa

Did you ever wonder why Asia and Africa are responsible for so much pollution ? I'm asking that because any amount of research will show you that first world countries are sending hundreds of tons of appliances, computers, smartphones, &c. per day over there for them to be "recycled", and by "recycled" I meant burned/melted in open air dumps. (And also because they're manufacturing all our shitty ultra short lived gadgets, cloths, &c.)

It's literally like throwing your shit on the neighbours lawn and blaming them. Actually it's even worse now that China told us to fuck off with our trash.

> Until recently, half of the collected plastic – especially low-grade plastic – was exported to China, but China has completely stopped its [used plastic] imports. Therefore the majority of plastic will likely end up burnt while just 15 percent will be recycled”

Are we talking about the future of Humanity or about "it's not my problem it didn't happen in the country I was born in" .... we're doomed. The world is a closed eco system so of fucking course the European plastic and the African plastic will eventually end up in your plate (especially if the Europen plastic is sent to Africa for "recycling")

https://www.thelocal.dk/20180910/danes-are-sorting-more-plas...

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4 comments · 4 top-level

Nasrudith6y ago

Well Asia and Africia also often lack proper garbage infastructures in many areas (they are kind of big continents) in addition to being poor enough to wind up regularly taking external trash.

vbezhenar6y ago

That's because humans act on a country-scale. We need planetary scale to act reasonably on matters like that. Until then it's always cheaper to exploit poor countries rather than building proper waste recycling. And for some strange reason world government is not happening.

chiefalchemist6y ago

> Did you ever wonder why Asia and Africa are responsible for so much pollution

I hate to parse words but the nuance is important. They are not responsible. Yes, they generate it. But the responsibility belongs to the source (i.e., countries up the economic / development food chain.)

This is why it persists: out of sight, out of mind. Nearly all the consumers in the source countries are oblivious to their contributions. Enlightening them would throttle the consumption-based economy. That's not good for profits.

primroot6y ago

>> ... over there for them to be "recycled", and by "recycled" I meant burned/melted in open air dumps.

I thought the Basel convention covered this in some way. Larry Summers had (has?) a rather infamous opinion on this [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summers_memo

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