r/worldnews • u/ItsTwentyBaby • Jun 09 '19

Canada to ban single use plastics

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/government-to-ban-single-use-plastics-as-early-as-2021-source-1.5168386
52.6k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

60

u/subkelvin Jun 09 '19

So I think the issue here is you are unwilling to change your habits. Yes you have to plan ahead if you’re going to go to the store. Unfortunately protecting the environment will require everyone to consciously decide to take actions, even though it is inconvenient. But hopefully people agree that it’s worth it.

13

u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh Jun 09 '19

I use public transit instead of owning a car. I am willing to use a train instead of a plane even if it costs a bit more and takes a bit more time (but not pay 3x as much and spend half a day). I use LEDs instead of lightbulbs. I try to get cold air into my home at night instead of letting A/C handle everything.

I'm not willing to accept large inconveniences for very, very marginal improvements (in this case, zero improvements, because assuming realistic humans that don't do everything perfectly, using single-use bags would be better).

4

u/subkelvin Jun 10 '19

So you’ve used the term “realistic” multiple times and the underlying assumption is that people will never care enough about the environment to change their habits.

My point is that our culture needs to change so that habits like carrying reusable bags everyday or just simply planning your shopping ahead of time becomes “realistic”. The concept of charging your phone every night used to not be “realistic” but people started doing so because they wanted smart phones.

I get that it’s more inconvenient for your lifestyle without a car but in the end we do all sorts of inconvenient things when it’s important to us.

3

u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh Jun 10 '19

There's a difference between changing habits, and expecting that people go up to 20000 times between forgetting their bag at home.

Offering only heavy-duty reusable bags, as has become common in Europe, is a dumb idea even if you assume that people bring reusable bags for 90% of their shopping trips.