How Big Business Broke Recycling (And Blamed You)
A point I clung on to in this video, was how before disposable containers, Americans used reusable containers. I think this is an important consideration in Bitcoin economic trade, charge for the container, and discount for reuse. I think this will work with Bitcoiners, because Bitcoiners are always looking to save sats, but the FIAT minded typically don't give extra thought to a few cents.
Water is a pretty simple problem to solve. Just get a filtration system and reuse bottles for more water. However, if someone is willing to pay for you to filter all the water and refill all their bottles, why not serve the market demand.
Other liquids maybe aren't so simple. A farmer selling milk would have to charge for the bottle and then have a refill price. This refill price should clearly outweigh the price of using a disposable container. However, there is a catch, milk goes bad and can stick to the sides of the container. So there's a cleaning cost.
Tupperware instead of disposable togo containers also has a cleaning cost. Mason jars and canning would run into the same issue.
I posit to you Bitcoiners, can we get a mass cleaning process down that allows us to replace the disposable market with a Bitcoin-only reusable market?
Some areas have local farms and other business that sell or even deliver their goods in reusable containers. Yes, you can still get milk delivered to your door in a glass bottle, with cream on top. They pickup the empty bottles and wash them. There will probably be more ways to get your stuff in reusable or refillable containers as awareness increases. Also, many local business are starting to charge more if you pay with a credit card. Perhaps if someone made it easier or even cheaper for a business to accept bitcoin they would do it?
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I think there is a chance to reduce but there's an upper limit, theres a reason we moved towards this packaging, cost, scale and convenience
The Logistics of having to bring your own containers is a pain in the arse and impractical for those who don't have their own vehicle, imagine people on the bus hauling jars up and down to shop, and the integrity of those containers will also deteriorate with time
I have experience in glass recycling, and the best way to deal with glass is to smash it, or you carrying around air, cleaning plants are only able to process so much, so smashing works better, it can just be broken down and re-used that way
If i don't clean my containers I buy a product, and I get sick, I can blame the store and that causes its own set of problems
Do I think landfill/disposal could be better sure, food stuffs could easily be pushed towards setting up biogas and composting, enriching the material and creating something that can be resold to the market
Plastics are really the tough one, theres so many different types, and none of these solutions like making bricks and stuff is actually worth it, its just a marketing gimmick IMO
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I think if the world actually got behind glass and everything, we would be golden. We can reuse things, we dont need to be lazy. Our lifestyle has become more lazy because of the easiness of money! Now this generation is paying for it.
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Recycling sounds hazardous if you think about all the possible chemicals, drugs, fluids and substances the material can be mixed with until it goes to the recycling bin.
It would be too expensive (maybe impossible) to clean it all.
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Right. How about cleaning reusable glass containers or something
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sounds better than recycled plastic
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A solution would be to get a credit back for every can that is returned to the respective sorting center in form of sats back. So 100 sats/can *12 cans =1200 sats. Only if they are scanned at the facility will you get the sats back.
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Who would give away bitcoin for plastic/glass?
Only if they can resell the material with a profit (in bitcoin), this could make sense small-scale business-wise.
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I think this is fundamentally the wrong way to approach the problem.
If throwing stuff away is priced appropriately, and people still do it, then burying trash in the ground is the best solution.
If people decide landfills are too costly, then other solutions will emerge naturally.
Remember, there are no solutions, just trade offs.
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The price of throwing stuff away is made up for with its convenience, but here's the bigger idea for you.
Bitcoiners can't make disposables.
Bitcoiners don't own factories in China...(except for the ASIC producers...I feel like some of these things can change, but for right now hang in there with me)
If we can make reusables as cost effective and convenient as trash, then that's one less dependency on the FIAT economy that the Bitcoin economy would need to pull from. We price it all in Bitcoin, and then that becomes a dependency that the FIAT economy has on Bitcoin.
Sure, the FIAT economy could replicate it, but would they be willing to? Their entire supply chain and manufacturing process works a certain way and changing it would take time, maybe enough time for people to start getting used to and normalizing Bitcoin payments.
Just a thought. Industrial washers do exist (https://www.webstaurantstore.com/49791/commercial-dishwashers.html) if the flow goes from house to washer to producer to consumer and back again, maybe that becomes more convenient and more cost effective than trash (I haven't done the math though)
While some person is there picking up your bottles, they might as well deliver as well. Cram as many things for every person along the chain to do and as many markets as possible for them to serve and we would really entrench ourselves.
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Ok, I think I get where you're coming from. This is part of withdrawing from the fiat economy.
My hangup then is that I'm forced to pay for municipal trash services whether or not I use it, so why should I impose an extra cost on myself to reduce how much trash I throw away?
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Welp that's a personal problem lmao. Not all of us are paying for trash by default lmao.
Oh I'm sorry to give you that response, but really I don't have a compelling argument for what you should do if you're forced to pay for something. Maybe the people delivering food in this supply chain scenario can also take your trash to the dumpster or something idk lmao.
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