"Recycling program? What's that?"

-our local government

 

If recycling were really that big of a concern, the U.S. government would have federalized it by now. No matter what side of the fence you sit on politically, it's just obvious that it's not a priority in this country save for a handful of progressive communities - which seems telling to me but others may interpret that another way. As a result, though, any pro-environment cause pushed by a company feels less sincere and more cost-cutting/PR-related - at least to me.

 

Making recycling a nation requirement in the US would be a costly logistical nightmare. It would need the bins for every home in the US. so that's 127.59 million homes that need two or more new plastic bins, then they have to be shipped to each home, by train, truck and ship. Then there's the extra instructor needed to remove the trash. All of that costs money and that money comes from taxes.

 

Indeed. But which is the predominating perception? The belief that we are saving the Earth by recycling plastic or the belief we'd be wasting tax dollars on such an enormous initiative - especially one that could simply be mandated by way of requiring that waste management companies provide both bins for waste per customer (either way, the cost would be passed to the consumer but it wouldn't come in the form of an actual tax, per se). I'd say it's the latter.

 

People don't like to spend more money. IF the government did get involved the best way would be to give waist management companies and recycling center a tax break so they have the extra money to provide those services to their customers at a lower cost. Yeah I can see the potential problems with that plan too. It is a problem that can be solved and should have more effort going into it, but we are probably not the ones who are going to solve it.

 

If the government developed a system to take in recyclable material, process it, and then sell it as scrap to materials companies (smelters, plastics makers, pulp products companies, etc.) they might be able to make a significant sum of money back, and the energy savings would probably be great for carbon footprints. The government has all sorts of federal systems that work on the municipal level, it shouldn't be impossible to set something like that up

The issue, as you've said, is the cost and the lack of political will to do so.

 

Are there private corporations following this business model at all?

 

Yup, not so much the municipal recycling with boxes thing (though that's been outsourced to private firms sometimes, like with garbage pickup), but with recycling / waste processing there's lots of companies who do it.

 

A) Massive international corporations taking action on minimising waste is vastly different in scope and scale to individual recycling.
B) the idea that the US government would take meaningful action on pollution because it is a defacto good for the human race is provably wrong on account of the last 60 years of governance. This is not a political point so much as a historical one.
C) ergo, corporations taking meaningful or even any action on pollution is currently one of the only ways in which impacts can be made. We are already living in the most depressing of cyberpunk corporate ruled futures.

 

C) makes me laugh.

But anyhow, I've made my thoughts known and really don't want to throw in much more personal opinion for the sake of pushing this already politically charged thread (by its very nature) any further as that might create a situation in which it will get shut down.

 

do you guys think the increase on imported goods also impacted the removal of plastic or do you think it was purely environmental

 

PR stunt, environmental friendly hug to the shareholders, goodbye all nostalgia

 

I’m shocked (ok..not) that people are so focused on their own buying needs.

The big impact is in retail. The reason They like blister packs is because it is space efficient and gets the toy out where the kids can see them. In the shelf war... they are trying to make those young kids WANT that figure. Plus peg hooks is liked for the high visibility of many packages on the shelf.

So you need to use packaging that makes the figure out in the open so kids can see them. We see that in the lower age toys already. For higher end toys with more educated buyers... you can rely on box art.

For battling swappers... hasbro should just step up their tamper proof seals... so buyers can know if a box has been opened. Retailers will adapt if the product becomes a problem. They already do this in problem areas, or certain high value products (Xbox etc).

For QC inspections.... the buyers and their returns will ultimately be the feedback loop. When returns get too much... hasbro will adapt, or lose their buyers.

I do find the retro product questions interesting. That very much can impact buyer interest.

 

THEY CAN STILL DO WINDOW BOXES WITH PLASTIC ALTERNATIVES

 

All that money would go to businesses providing those things. And Businesses would need laborers to perform the functions required to provide those services.

 

This decision is completely pointless. Let's say you already recycle, which I do, the net effect of eliminating plastic is zero, because you would have recycled it anyway. Let's say that you don't recycle. The net effect is still zero, because you'll probably be throwing away about the same amount of bulk away, taking up the same amount of space in a landfill.

I've seen people even mention that it's more of a resource issue, because paper is more renewable than plastic, but even that is becoming less of an issue as we move away from fossil fuels with hybrid and electric cars, and wind and solar based power plants.

All this is, is really just cause marketing. Hasbro is doing this, just to seem more environmentally friendly, with no actual benefit to the environment, in hopes that people will buy their product more. If Hasbro starts shipping all of their products in windowless cardboard boxes, I think it will have a negative impact on their sales. I know I'm more likely to buy a toy if I can see the actual product. Photos and box art don't always do it for me. Case in point, I had no intention of buying Siege Ultra Magnus and Shockwave, but after seeing the actual toys in package, I was persuaded to purchase them. On the other hand, Im sure Jetfire is an excellent figure, but since he has no plastic window, I have no idea if it's something I actually want, so I'm not going to buy it. If the packaging had a plastic window, that might be enough to push me to get it. I suspect a lot of consumers are the same way, so I expect Hasbro to see a decline in sales in 2020. Then we'll see what's really important to them. Profits, or their faux environmentalism.

 

It's not about where the goes, but where it comes from.

 

LOL wind...

The Hidden Costs of Wind Power - IER

Solar is where it's at.

 

The IER is a climate denial “think” tank that focusses on lobbying for coal as an energy solution. They were funded by a Koch and directed by Enron stooges. It is unlikely that any research they present is approaching true or in good faith on the topic.

 

Maybe. However solar is still where it's at. Think about how much it takes to ship one wind turbine, and this this photo give you an idea...



Now how many solar cells could you ship with the same truck? and how much power would they provide?

How much solar would it take to power the U.S.? - Freeing Energy