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Comment by ambyra | Hacker News Reader

I always thought the plastic bags deal was not seeing the forest through the trees. Most food comes in heavy plastic. The food is consumed in a day or so, and the plastic lasts FOREVER. Forcing the companies to use paper or glass packaging, or having reusable returnable containers would have a bigger impact than banning those thin plastic bags.

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True, but who says laws stop there in the coming years? I sincerely hope these things will come aswell. Banning non reusable plastic bags however is a good and easy start.

The main issue there, imo, is that plastic is the main technology used to protect and seal food items, thereby making them last longer without spoiling. A good part of the world's food trade and economy now relies upon it. There would be mass starvation without it.

Plastic has saved humanity insane amounts of energy over the short term, and has contributed to our population growth. The resulting environmental debt is mindbendingly massive, and I'm not convinced that the corporate world will willingly pay it. It will be paid though, one way or another, because Laws of Physics, entropy etc.

The smartest species is also the stupidest.

A bring your own bag/bottle/container store would be cool. Everything would be shipped in bulk to the grocery store, and people would take what they want in their own containers.

Some such outlets do exist. Its also reminiscent of older style open-air food markets. But globally speaking, the short term charms of plastics clearly won the economic race. The same cheap, low effort, high resistance elements that make plastics such an environmental problem are also the factors which dictated its use.

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