Ready to seriously unplastic my life. Not just single use. Thinking of inviting a group of folks locally to meet/discuss book/watch films and support each other to address this.
Looking for UK resources online and books. Have read many and lately the 2minute solution.

Can anyone recommend good resources beyond the single use coffee cups/straws/toothbrushes level?

Organic veg box/dairy/meat and Sumawholefoods bulk/group buying still v heavy on the plasticpolythene wrapping....

Clay drains, incl the much-discussed French drain. What to do for soil pipes? Good fall-pipes in galv steel. Could that be used for soil (@ correct diameter, of course)?

I'm not keen on plastics and actively avoid buying things made of plastic. I don't think having to throw stuff out after a few years is especially 'green'. Though I would find it tricky to reply without prodding at a plastic keyboard.

I have a 60 year old car that used almost no plastic in it's construction - just a tiny bit of Bakelite. They didn't use much plastic in my 400 year old house either. I've found most of the traditional materials in the house have lasted for quite a long time. Generally it is plastic paint or cement that killed the bits that needed to be replaced.

Plastic is a modern invention, only the last 50 years or so. If you want to avoid it just research the materials they used 50 years ago. 50 years ago wasn't the dark ages. Lifestyle was similar, just with fewer electrical gadgets.

Totally agree with selly. Of course single-use and general throwaway tackiness. But well engineered plastics are great for our lives, for the environment too if you compare their lifecycle analyses with the alternatives'. If the machines - car or whatever - themselves get thrown away after a short life, that's not the plastics' fault.

Even that doesn't matter, if only circular-economy recycling were the norm. Mining of all virgin materials should and could largely stop, if we recaptured nearly all of the raw materials currently in circulation, for re-use. Then it wouldn't matter if each use was short-life.

Re-use recycling can't just mean what it does today - each re-use is as a progressively lower-grade raw material - e.g. unholy mixtures of different plastics which are only good for for making mud-coloured wood-substitute fence planks. Circular-economy recycling must mean re-purification of salvaged materials, into high quality feedstock which at present demands 'virgin' product direct from the ground via oil refinery/chemical works.

That re-purification necessitates large energy input, to break exothermic chemical bonds. And that energy must come from renewable source itself of low or negative impact, which only future-promised kinds of solar can deliver on a large scale. Such energy source is effectively limitless and costless, limited only by attainable efficiency of conversion, solar intake to electic output - but obviously isn't here yet.

So in the meantime all we can do is consciousness-raising gestures like agitating to ban single-use plastics (totally useful in its own right), and to boycot all plastics maybe (as a political gesture).

Posted By: cjardWhat to do

straws are the final ... straw !

What's wrong with spoons ?

New-born infants are tested for their ability to suck off of a spoon...
It is called "extrusion reflex"

Unfortunately, our industrial societies have too much of an extrusion reflex...



gg

¿ qué ?

gg

Posted By: barneyLocal patois for that fine drinking establishment, Weatherspoons

wow, would never have got that !
Barney, I can only aspire to your level of culture LOL


p.s. would never set foot in one...

gg

I'm a big fan of WS (at least during the day): good cheap beer and no background musak.

Rgds

Damon