Re: Pearls Before Swine: Rat The Luddite

On Tue, 20 Aug 2024, Cryptoengineer wrote:

On 8/20/2024 4:34 AM, D wrote:

  On Mon, 19 Aug 2024, Joy Beeson wrote:
 

On Thu, 15 Aug 2024 13:06:58 -0400, Cryptoengineer
<petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
 

If its a plastic fiber, you've done little or nothing to reduce
plastic waste. How many single-use bags are required to equal the
weight of your reusable?

 Despite being washed in hot water with bleach, my reusable bags were
well over thirty years old when I set them next to a leaking battery
and they all got large holes in the bottom.
 

 Note that it is not the age, but how many times you reuse them. I think common knowledge is that you must use one of those reusables about 10 000 times in order for it to come out favourably against single use plastic bags.
 Needless to say, many hip and woke teenagers, probably throw them away after a month or two when they become dirty or when a new shiny one is received at the next convention.

>
>
https://sites.psu.edu/marabelleolivia/2021/02/25/are-reusable-bags-worth-it/
>
This site, which is mainly concerned with greenhouse gases, points
out that all the reusables use more resources per bag than the
single use ones, but works out the break-even points:
>
Paper: 4 uses
Polypropylene: 14
Cotton: 173
>
So, it looks like the plastic reusables are a lot better than I
thought.
>
pt
>

It is not clear cut. In this study from the ministry of environment and food in Denmark, from 2018, looking at the life cycle assessment of grocery carrier bags, cotton can reach up to 20 000 times when looking at many environmental factors such as:
Climate change
Ozone depletion
Human toxicity, cancer effects
Human toxicity, non-cancer effects
Photochemical ozone formation
Ionizing radiation
Particulate matter
Terrestrial acidification
Terrestrial eutrophication
Freshwater eutrophication
Marine eutrophication
Ecosystem toxicity
Resource depletion, fossil
Resource depletion, abiotic
Water resource depletion
Also add to that, that single use plastic bags can frequently be reused as well for garbage, lunch sandwiches etc. (well, I do) to further skew the number towards plastic in favour of cotton.
Link here: https://www2.mst.dk/udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-73-4.pdf .