If you care so much about plastic waste polluting the environment then why aren& #39;t you advocating for higher economic growth in poor nations so they have the money to build the waste-management systems required to prevent plastic from escaping into the environment?

THREAD https://twitter.com/drvox/status/1301359973536989185">https://twitter.com/drvox/sta...

Plastic waste in the oceans comes from

- poor nations that lack waste collection

- rich nations that dump plastics on poor ones by deceiving themselves that their plastics will be recycled when they often are not

It& #39;s great that people are raising the alarm, again, about rich nations dumping plastics on poor nations, but people should remember that this is because:

- poor nations lack waste-management systems rich nations take for granted

- we irrationally think plastic must be recycled

As for the claim that plastic bags "pollute the environment for millennia," there& #39;s precisely zero science for it.

In reality, the best-available science finds 99.9% of plastic waste biodegrades, sinks, and is otherwise removed from the ocean& #39;s surface.

#39;s,250%2C000%20Tons%20Afloat%20at%20Sea&text=PLoS%20One">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4262196/#:~:text=Plastic%20Pollution%20in%20the%20World& #39;s,250%2C000%20Tons%20Afloat%20at%20Sea&text=PLoS%20One.">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic...

If you want to deny poor nations the PVC pipes that handle our sewage, the plastic masks that prevent the transmission of covid, & the plastics that we are all using on this web site, then do so openly and honestly, don& #39;t wrap your anti-growth Malthusianism in plastic.

/END

Sources:

Graphs/charts:

https://environmentalprogress.org/plastics 

Book:

https://environmentalprogress.org/plastics&... href=" https://www.amazon.com/Apocalypse-Never-Environmental-Alarmism-Hurts/dp/0063001691

Short">https://www.amazon.com/Apocalyps... overview:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2020/08/31/dont-deny-plastics-to-poor-nations/">https://www.forbes.com/sites/mic...