Hey, @minismallholding.
While it's true that there are people who do contribute in ways we can't see, it is also true that there are plenty who do not, unless absolutely forced to do so. What's interesting about this, though, government and to an extent society tends to go in the opposite direction—instead of making them just uncomfortable enough to actually do something, instead, the laws are more likely to favor such folks continuing to provide little or nothing for their existence.
The thing about those who contribute behind the scenes, they are either compensated something for what they do, or we're the ones that are freeloading. If we're not paying fair market value for the clothes we wear, the food we eat, or the devices we use daily, then we're taking away from those who toiled to produce those items.
There really isn't anything free in this world. Someone, one way or another, is paying for it.
re: plastic bags
I believe that the discussion about what people do if left to their own devices is a good one. The issue becomes what to do about it. Again, government and society has a tendency to take over when unsatisfactory results are deemed to exist (unfortunately, they can also be made up, but I digress). The question becomes, who determines when that is, and then what to do about it, how to pay for it, and how to enforce it?
There are plastic bag bans in different towns in Oregon where I live. I'm not a fan of bans, but I am a fan of properly disposing of any sort of bag (paper, plastic, whatever) after it's used. We often reuse the plastic bags our groceries go into, mainly to dispose of other waste.
Others, I understand, leave their refuse lying around after it's used, on beaches, at parks, and many other public places because they can't be bothered to dispose of it properly. I wonder, though, because of their irresponsibility, do others need to be impacted by it? A ban on plastic or whatever would cause shockwaves throughout all kinds of industries and economies.
I can get behind consumers saying, I don't want this anymore. Those types of decisions are made on the individual level, and are based on whatever criteria each one believes is correct. A governing body usually takes their own reasoning, and even if it certainly does have a benefit, there's also an aspect of control.
So, I don't know. Having plastic choking the Earth is not a great option, and we should all do our part to prevent it. At the same time, regulating plastic out of existence or doing away with it in some fashion would have more repercussions than just preventing litter or tragedies caused by it. Even if there were cheap alternatives that manufacturers are somehow too lazy to make or promote, the fact that a governing body or regulatory agency stepped in and mandated it unless backed by a majority of the people is still tyranny of a sort.
The double edged sword of living in a free society is that some bad will happen, along with the good. We can't really ever be free of people's poor/bad decisions, nor will we be of our own. We can do what we can to lower risk and mitigate the damage, but more serious long term damage will be done if we allow more and more of our free will to be taken away.
I enjoyed this topic. Thanks for posting about it, and congratulations on the curie. Very well deserved, and nice to see on this kind of a post. :)
Thank you for your reply, Glen. I'm so glad you touched on the freedom vs control side and the potential, unforeseen downsides of sudden changes. I agree, every sudden large scale implemented change is pretty much guaranteed to have bad consequences. Which is why the slow changes of consumer demand is nearly always the better way to go.
Back to the bags again for example. Plastic came into use as a by product of the fuel industry. While we still have so much running on oil, that by product is going to be there and abolishing all plastic is just going to mean the need to find another way of disposing of it and it's probably going to be just as bad as the plastic waste. It's a chain in place and links need to be gradually replaced or it fails.
There are also uses for plastics which can't really be replaced by other materials. However, many single use plastics could be replaced with compostable plastics now. So the convenience of plastic bags can remain in place with potential escapees not causing so much of a problem.
Hopefully it's not restricted to Australia.On the side of government intervention, most people are so reliant on government doing things for them, they almost won't do anything until it's sanctioned by government and if they want something done will appeal to government to change it. I recently watched a documentary about a chap who went against everything that government recommended to restore dead farmland and it took him 30 years for people to finally start paying attention to what he was doing. Until then he was fighting everyone on it, particularly his neighbours. Here's the link to the documentary if you're interested: https://www.abc.net.au/austory/of-droughts-and-flooding-rains---part-1/9169558
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