"This is why the concept of recycling has been such a spectacular success. The industry convinced us that single-use packaging would be dealt with, so that we could happily consume without concern."
No, Lloyd, you're entirely wrong about this. It wasn't the INDUSTRY that convinced us to accept single-use packaging, it was WE AS THE CONSUM…
"This is why the concept of recycling has been such a spectacular success. The industry convinced us that single-use packaging would be dealt with, so that we could happily consume without concern."
No, Lloyd, you're entirely wrong about this. It wasn't the INDUSTRY that convinced us to accept single-use packaging, it was WE AS THE CONSUMER and GOVERNMENT WHO MANDATED IT who did their dirty work for them!
It began with bottled milk—small, local dairies (Weber Dairy in central Wisconsin is the one that comes to mind) used to sell their milk in returnable, recyclable bottles with paper & wax lids—anyone of a certain age as I am remember those things? As a kid, when my mom bought it by the gallon, I watched her remove the lid and skim off the cream to be used for baking or other uses. Then one day, we were told that Weber's would be stopping sales of fuild milk because the state was requiring them to switch from returnable, recyclable bottles with paper-and-wax lids because they deemed those lids as "unsafe". Old man Weber told my parents (I was sitting in the back seat at the time) that the equipment upgrades would be far too expensive for him to financially support, so he had to shutter direct-to-consumer sales. Thus, his milk was sold to a cooperative who could get the financial backing to purchase huge quantities of milk and sell it with the new packaging requirements. That mandate by the state came from the belief—right or wrong—by the CONSUMER that centralized production of single-use packaging was (a) healthier and (b) safer. So, refillable glass bottles became paper-and-wax coated jugs, and then plastic jugs once paper prices became too expensive. Now, in the state of Wisconsin, you can't even sell raw milk as part of a closed cooperative because of the "unnecessary risk" which raw milk poses to the consumer—denying the facts that for millennia humans drank unpasteurized milk just fine, that every farm with a milking cow drank unpasteurized milk for their own consumption, and that as part of a cooperative YOU as a member are WILLING to accept any and all risks independent of state oversight. Yet, government fiat says no. So what choice is the everyday person able to have when we're regulated over every petty little decision we want to make?
So no, it's not the industry that convinced us as the consumer to do "their dirty work" of breaking closed-loop packaging, it was WE OURSELVES and our misguided, fearful, ignorant irrationality that did it with a GENEROUS dollop of governmental intrusion. Plus, economy of scale = higher profitability. Can't forget about that one, can we?
So I would ask that you amend your article to assign blame to us as the consumer, not the manufacturer, because manufacturers merely respond to consumer demand and government diktat.
"This is why the concept of recycling has been such a spectacular success. The industry convinced us that single-use packaging would be dealt with, so that we could happily consume without concern."
No, Lloyd, you're entirely wrong about this. It wasn't the INDUSTRY that convinced us to accept single-use packaging, it was WE AS THE CONSUMER and GOVERNMENT WHO MANDATED IT who did their dirty work for them!
It began with bottled milk—small, local dairies (Weber Dairy in central Wisconsin is the one that comes to mind) used to sell their milk in returnable, recyclable bottles with paper & wax lids—anyone of a certain age as I am remember those things? As a kid, when my mom bought it by the gallon, I watched her remove the lid and skim off the cream to be used for baking or other uses. Then one day, we were told that Weber's would be stopping sales of fuild milk because the state was requiring them to switch from returnable, recyclable bottles with paper-and-wax lids because they deemed those lids as "unsafe". Old man Weber told my parents (I was sitting in the back seat at the time) that the equipment upgrades would be far too expensive for him to financially support, so he had to shutter direct-to-consumer sales. Thus, his milk was sold to a cooperative who could get the financial backing to purchase huge quantities of milk and sell it with the new packaging requirements. That mandate by the state came from the belief—right or wrong—by the CONSUMER that centralized production of single-use packaging was (a) healthier and (b) safer. So, refillable glass bottles became paper-and-wax coated jugs, and then plastic jugs once paper prices became too expensive. Now, in the state of Wisconsin, you can't even sell raw milk as part of a closed cooperative because of the "unnecessary risk" which raw milk poses to the consumer—denying the facts that for millennia humans drank unpasteurized milk just fine, that every farm with a milking cow drank unpasteurized milk for their own consumption, and that as part of a cooperative YOU as a member are WILLING to accept any and all risks independent of state oversight. Yet, government fiat says no. So what choice is the everyday person able to have when we're regulated over every petty little decision we want to make?
So no, it's not the industry that convinced us as the consumer to do "their dirty work" of breaking closed-loop packaging, it was WE OURSELVES and our misguided, fearful, ignorant irrationality that did it with a GENEROUS dollop of governmental intrusion. Plus, economy of scale = higher profitability. Can't forget about that one, can we?
So I would ask that you amend your article to assign blame to us as the consumer, not the manufacturer, because manufacturers merely respond to consumer demand and government diktat.