Is it normal to hate plastic?

I can't stand plastic. Anytime I see it I'm reminded of how it's like a poison to nature. Unlike materials such as wood and metal, it's a completely unnatural artificial material. It takes hundreds of years to fully degrade. And before it does, it can also break up into smaller and smaller pieces and seep into the natural pristine streams and lakes, and totally fuck them up. Those waterways have been providing life to animals and plants for thousands (or possibly millions) of years, and now they're being ruined. It's like their purity is being tainted.

Not to mention, plastic also goes against the traditional materials that we've been using to build things for thousands of years. And plastic is just so cheap and tacky and flimsy an alternative. It's synonymous with fake and rubbish. Like there's something so much more soulful to see some real wooden/metal ornamentation to an object than to see a plastic imitation. It connects us to the natural world and to our past. It's particularly enraging when this is done with traditional items. I love antiques and I love to see people carry on the traditional crafts in making those items, so when I see a traditional object (eg. a pocket watch) made with fake plastic embellishments, it just feels so wrong. But even with modern things, I think we should try to go back to using natural materials to build them. They would be so much more refined. They might be more expensive, but that's because you're not buying cheap throwaway rubbish that won't last. Obviously I know we couldn't do this with everything, but at the same time there is a whole load of cheap plastic trash being dumped upon us everyday that we could do without.

Voting Results
67% Normal
Based on 9 votes (6 yes)
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Comments ( 15 )
  • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk

    dont hate on the plastic

    its largely inert it dont rust it dont rot it can be flexible or strong as fuck or heat cold sunlight & bullet resistant

    it aint the plastics fault its the peoples fault for carelessly disposin of it

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    • dude_Jones

      That's precisely why I love my plastic house. Nothing is less biodegradable.

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  • Plastic is great! Imagine what would happen if we didn't have single use disposable syringes, we would have blood borne diseases running rampant because they would have to reuse the needles and syringes.
    If you want to destroy plastic just burn it completely, it changes into carbon dioxide and water.

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    • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk

      its not terrible if its burnt at very high temperatures under controlled conditions but that dont usually happen

      co2 and water though? nah theres much more there

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    • JellyBeanBandit

      Yeah, medical equipment is one of the things that obviously wouldn't be able to be replaced with other materials. But the point is that we could replace a lot of things with natural materials.

      Burning plastic is a terrible idea though. It's disastrous for the environment and for people's health. You shouldn't advise people to do that, it's dangerous.

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  • LloydAsher

    I dont know that you know this but a lot of things humans do is unnatural.

    Actually there have been a few bacterial strains that have evolved to digest plastics into oil or other base chemicals. If mother nature was as weak as you say it is we would of been dead centuries ago.

    Plastic isnt flimsy. It can be anything you want it to be. Need to stop bullets? Kevlar is Plastic. Need a see through material like glass but 20x stronger? Polyurethane is Plastic. Plastic is just about the most flexible material to make shit out of.

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    • JellyBeanBandit

      Yeah I get what you mean, but in terms of our homes and possessions, it's better for our immediate environment to somewhat resemble nature. It has a positive effect on our mental health.

      I'm not saying nature won't survive, but a lot of it could be destroyed nonetheless. We shouldn't be content with destroying all the beautiful natural landscapes around us, just because nature as a whole will eek out a survival somewhere.

      Yeah I know plastic can be made to be strong, but in a lot of cases where it's used as a replacement for the original traditional materials used to make an object (like wood or metal), it's usually much weaker and more prone to breaking. Things like plastic bags/bottles, furniture and children's toys for example (as well as just small plastic components of larger objects).

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      • LloydAsher

        Plastic saves trees. Honestly it does, products that use plastic used to rely on paper and wood products much more. Plastic recycling or turning it into petrol are both supported.

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        • JellyBeanBandit

          Yeah but there are better ways to save trees than by using plastic instead of wood/paper, like by reducing the amount of meat we eat (since the majority of the rainforest deforestation is actually done in order to create grazing land for cattle). Saving trees by using plastic is just swapping one problem for another.

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          • LloydAsher

            Hahahaha all you can do is stop eating meat. Forcing people to stop eating meat is wrong as fuck. So that problem wont be solved in any non authoritarian way.

            Sometimes theres no perfect solution thus far it seems that plastic is the better option. Any problem arises the more people work to find a solution. Finding a work around is the better option than cutting back on it. Since making a work around actually makes new things. Cutting the flow just delays the problem and we go back to the old problems.

            Coal plants causing too much pollution? A static trap was invented to contain 99.9% of the pollution. By your logic closing down coal plants was the solution.

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            • JellyBeanBandit

              I'm not talking about forcing anyone, I'm talking about encouraging them. I also didn't say stop eating meat, I said eating less meat, it doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing scenario.

              My solution in that case would've been to use other sources of energy than coal, such as wind, hydro and nuclear. It's better to solve the problem properly rather than to just find a temporary quick fix, even if it is less prosperous for us in the short term.

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  • bbrown95

    I definitely don't like it as a cheap alternative to higher quality materials that will last a lot longer. I hate dealing with and maintaining low quality items, and never think they are worth the lower price point (even though some of it is actually sold at a premium price when it shouldn't be), as it only breaks faster and needs to be replaced more often than something made well in the first place (plus, cheaper, lower quality items usually never perform anywhere nearly as well).

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  • Clunk42

    "seep into the natural pristine streams and lakes, and totally fuck them up. Those waterways have been providing life to animals and plants for thousands (or possibly millions) of years, and now they're being ruined. It's like their purity is being tainted."

    You know, iron can do the exact same thing.

    Plastic being cheap is one of the reasons for using it. If you want to make something cheaply, you make it out of plastic. There is no reason to make bottles, for example, that are meant to be thrown away out of expensive materials, and, in modern America, there is no reason to make bottles not intended to be thrown away.

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    • JellyBeanBandit

      Exactly, back when people didn't have plastic they wouldn't dare make disposable bottles that were meant to be just thrown away afterwards, because that would be far too wasteful and expensive. So if we limited the amount of plastic we use, then we'd limit the amount of waste too. We could each carry a metal flash with us to work each day and fill it up in the sink, rather than buying plastic bottles of water.

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  • 1WeirdGuy

    I find plastic waste to be more troubling than car's and plane's CO2 and shit. L

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