hungryphrog

1mo ago

If we replace most plastic with a non plastic alternative and would that really be better?

Jump

Louder for the people in the back!

1mo ago

If we replace most plastic with a non plastic alternative and would that really be better?

Jump

From what I know, wood (or bamboo) toothbrushes and hair bristles are just fine.

1mo ago

If we replace most plastic with a non plastic alternative and would that really be better?

Jump

Exactly. Outside of, medical supplies that have to be single-use and can't be made of any other material, there is nothing that has to be made of plastic.

1mo ago

If we replace most plastic with a non plastic alternative and would that really be better?

Jump

Why are we still using so much fucking plastic?

Capitalism, gotta make that line go up.

Let's take clothing for example. It's way easier to say, make a polyester shirt that breaks in a few months in a sweatshop than make a linen shirt that lasts for 20 years.

Now, let's say that these two shirts have been made and now they are in a store. Someone goes there and chances are that they will take the polyester shirt because it's cheaper. (also: plastic fibers feel soft at first, but soon become rough and itchy, while natural fibers like linen or cotton are rough at first and become softer with time. For example, the linen clothing I'm wearing right now was very rough and kinda uncomfortable at first but now is soft.)

Another reason is that plastic can be made into nearly any form. Combined with the fact that plastic items are cheaper to make than longer-lasting and/or enviriomentally friendly items, this leads to companies making a lot of plastic items.

I presume costs for most products would creep up

Yes, they would. But the thing is that in a world where items weren't made of plastic, they would be more durable, especially if we made items to be actually used not just to be sold. Companies don't care if your new shirt breaks the very next day, all they care is that they got that sweet, sweet money.

And if there were only, say, well-made, durable linen shirts instead of polyester ones sewn up by a Vietnamese child in 50 minutes, they would be way more expensive, yes, but you would need to buy new shirts very rarely. If all shirts could last 20 years, you wouldn't have to buy that many shirts.

Last but not least, in order to achieve this kind of world, we'd need to let go of the "buy, buy, buy" consumer mentality and replace it with quality over quantity, because chances are that in a world like this, you would have less stuff than you do now. For example, if you look back a couple of centuries, clothing was very valuable. You'd have like, three shirts unless you were really rich, but those shirts would last you decades, assuming you or someone else would mend them and moths wouldn't find their way to your wardrobe. (of course, with modern farming technology and mechanised spinning and weaving, clothes would still be far less expensive)

So in conclusion: there's so much plastic shit because it's cheaper to make plastic shit than actually good products. And yes, prices would go up, and we would need to have less stuff over all, since the amount of stuff we have nowadays is ridiculously unsustainable. Humans have done just fine without single-use plastics for millenia.