this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2024
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Likely far more energy and pollution needed to manufacture this though so overall a loss for the earth.
Energy needs can be met and shouldn't be an argument for using plastic.
The pollution could be more dependending on how you look at that statement, but making something without plastic results in less plastic pollution and you can't claim that to be an overall loss for the earth.
You can swap out centralized energy sources (relatively speaking) overnight as greener sources become cheaper/more available compared to retooling whole industries away from plastic
It's the same thing with electric cars, yea it might plug in now to a dirty energy source, but that energy source could be a green energy source tomorrow without you ever knowing and importantly not having to buy a new car or change any other infrastructure to take advantage of it
A power line is a power line, it doesn't care if the electricity going through it was derived from a dirty power plant or solar or nuclear
But most steel is recycled and most plastic is not.
You still need a lot of energy to recycle steel. Less than mining by far but still a lot.
But compared to plastic from virgin fossil fuels?
We as a society are going to need memory cards.
What do you think they should be made out of?
chitin
Need to be examined on e case by case basis but plastic often comes out aheadi
If you penny pinch and don’t want to pay the environmental cost, sure plastic might come out cheaper.
But when you take into account the triple bottom line, plastic comes out behind.
Plastic in a landfill is a lot less harmful than co2 in the atmosphere.
Which is why you use renewable green energy.
Sure but do you have any proof they are doing that? some places are really good and others really bad. Overall my guess is iron is still worse than plastic but there are exceptions.
In a sustainable world, energy can and should be cheaper than raw materials. We are only harvesting a tiny fraction of the solar energy hitting the earth, to say nothing of wind and geothermal power. Rolling out more renewables and energy storage and using some of the surplus power to switch from extracting new resources to recycling our waste would greatly lower our footprint.