| Comment | This is one of those things that sound like a typical conspiracy theory, but is actually true.
Although, the polymer/petrochemical industries weren't really worried about feelings, they were scared their products would be regulated into unprofitability due to the vast amount of waste generated. If they could establish the custom that *other people* would pay for cleaning up their waste, the problem would not arise.
It's difficult to realise how much of a change was brought by the adoption of plastic, all the materials it replaced were either valuable enough to be worth recovery even if you disregard the waste issue (metal, glass, etc.), or would mechanically or biologically degrade fairly quickly (wood, paper, textiles).
I don't know what the actual solution would be, plastic is extremely cheap compared to alternative materials, so a tax at source would have significant side-effects, but might be necessary. |
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