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Comment by emeril | Hacker News Reader

Maybe so, but think of the shareholders!!!

Blaming shareholders is an easy cop out, but most people’s appetite for cheap plastic things is insatiable.

It’s not like corporations are taking plastics out into the wilderness just for fun.

Indeed. Which is why we need collective action to overcome the power corporations have over an uneducated and apathetic population. A population they oversee through regulatory capture, advertising, curated studies, and (increasingly legalized) bribery of government officials.

Are the microplastics found in the environment coming from corporations production residues or from people’s consumption residues ?

I would say a relevant part of them comes from individuals. If you believe the issue is important enough, then raising awareness is the right direction so they take healthier choices. However most of the worlds population lives in developing countries, and microplastics are very low in their list of priorities, their top priority is actually making to the end of the month with enough food, shelter and some medical care or even education for them or their kids.

Blaming everything on greedy corporations is a very superficial analysis.

Individuals don’t make the plastic. It may come from post consumer waste, but it is manufactured by the corporations. Individual action is unlikely to make a dent in this issue.

Agreed though I see the current situation as just yet another result of the inherent flaws in human reasoning where some significant percentage of the population can't reason sufficiently well to make reasonably optimal choices (e.g., conservative science denialism).

This is why we, as a population, won't agree to curb CO2 sufficiently to address climate change but instead will simply adjust and, maybe eventually, accept geoengineering based approaches. That said, the next 10 years will be telling in how conservatives react to much higher home owner's insurance premiums...

Countries where micro plastics are more prevalent are ones where shareholders are less powerful (e.g. China).

https://www.newsweek.com/microplastic-map-reveals-countries-...

> When it comes to microplastic inhalation, Mongolia and China came in joint first place, with citizens of both countries inhaling more than 2.8 million microplastic particles a month. The United Kingdom came in third place, in joint place with Ireland, inhaling 791,500 particles per month. By comparison, the U.S. came in near the bottom of this list, in position 104 out of the 109 countries assessed, with only 10,500 microplastic particles inhaled per month.

Which country has the biggest stock market? US https://www.statista.com/statistics/710680/global-stock-mark...

Which country comes near last in inhalable microplastics: US

So you should be thanking shareholders if you live in the US (most are probably voters too!).

I think China is special case because they’re the world’s factory. They produce for several countries’ shareholders, including their own.

They're special case because they don't care about environmental protection unless there's a photo-op and headline that the government can use to look good.

Then what are you waiting for?

Ask your representatives today to ban all goods using China’s supply chain, and start producing all your country’s needs in your own soil.

Then measure the inhalable microplastics stats, that way we can know for sure if your country’s “environmental protection” is viable or just an excuse to offload dirty work to developing countries.

Shareholders have more power than the CCP in China?

Remember the US is second in manufacturing next to China.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/global-manufacturing-scor....

Why isn’t the US as polluted then?

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