(relatively low stakes, as in like not 9/11 or JFK level)

Mine: plastic straw (and now plastic cutlery) ban initiatives are directly funded by petrochemical companies. Plastic straws are one of the most common and useful types of disposable plastic an average American encounters every day, so banning them causes people a huge inconvenience and tarnishes the idea of other green initiatives (that might have actual teeth) as more nanny state "not allowed to have this"-ery (also has the side effect of making gullible libs think they're actually doing something to help the planet by using a reusable straw while they get their plastic container of meat products)

  • Gay_Wrath [fae/faer]
    ·
    4 years ago

    idk if the plastic straw ban is a conspiracy, but it's definitely being used to make people feel like they're doing something about plastic pollution when fishing is doing way more damage.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/06/dumped-fishing-gear-is-biggest-plastic-polluter-in-ocean-finds-report

    A recent study of the “great Pacific garbage patch”, an area of plastic accumulation in the north Pacific, estimated that it contained 42,000 tonnes of megaplastics, of which 86% was fishing nets.

    Older source from national geographic

    “The interesting piece is that at least half of what they’re finding is not consumer plastics, which are central to much of the current debate, but fishing gear,” says George Leonard, the chief scientist at the Ocean Conservancy.

    • ItsPequod [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Can't help but notice nobody bothered to eliminate those plastic CAPS yet...