• TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    All food packaging could be glass, paper, metal and cloth. It was just that until plastic was invented. We could go back to that and the world and people would be a bit healthier for it. We won’t, though, not until we’re forced to by something catastrophic.

    • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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      6 hours ago

      Total CO2 will go up if we tried that. If we were smarter about reuse, like say, washing processing and resealing glass containers instead of crushing and remelting them (at best) we might be better. But plastics are much lighter, space efficient and durable. Which makes them less carbon intensive in many cases.

      Really we need less one time use or single serving containers of any material. Which isn’t likely unless society collapses and we have to live in local communes to survive.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Sure, but we also need to re-define what we call/think of as plastic. When we think of plastic we think of fossil fuel based plastics right? We don’t think of biodegradable, compostable, renewable plastics. Plastics made from corn starch and sugarcane exist with processes that can greatly reduce the carbon impact, while also reducing risks of micro plastics being in our water supply, blood, and well everything. Plastics can also be made from algea from what I’ve heard. So the idea that we need to shift what we are using I believe is 100% true, but that also means we need to do some research into what would be the least impactful, highest yield, best value (or we will never get support in this hellscape) to find replacements.

      Glass can be reused near indefinite, but is heavy and uses a decent amount of energy input to remold it. That doesn’t mean we shouldnt use it, it means we should, but for specific purposes. We need to get our governments and businesses to invest in research… Somehow.