To ask what one thing you would ban to help the environment?

[AngryBirdsNoMore]

Following on from @GADday’s well meaning thread about disposable sanitary products being an option to phase out to help the environment - what one thing would you ban to help the environment?

Let’s not get into sanitary products again. That thread makes clear that disposable sanitary products are probably here to stay for a range of reasons…

Ill go first:

Private planes. I’m struggling to think of any reason why they’re necessary especially for short flights.

Love this

Carnivorous peters eat meat?

Junk mail

helium-filled balloons - absolutely zero justification for using a non-renewable resource

those bloody Nespresso coffee pods.

eliminate cellophane and single use plastics on most fruit and veg, waste of resource and very difficult for councils to recycle economically, just get rid, we don't need it.

Wipes of all kinds

Even biodegradable, plastic free ones?

Cigarettes
Fruit being wrapped in plastic

No one really needs more than 1 child if limiting families is on the agenda.

Twin or more pregnancies obviously can't be helped though!

Silly string in a can. Surely the most pointless thing ever created.
Balloons.
Fake grass.
About 3/4 of the aisles in shops like Home Bargains and B&M - mass produced plastic tat that people buy on a whim and never use.

This.

Yes to all these.

Absolutely everything on this thread and then there'd be a million more similar things. Humans create profligate waste, it's just totally unsustainable and has kept me awake at night for a good 40 years 😢

How can you realistically ban fast fashion when all it physically is is cheap fashion and what makes it ‘fast’ is the people who wear it once and throw it away? What is fast fashion to one person is just clothes to someone else.

People letting off lanterns and balloons in memory of someone/to celebrate

Bottled water in any country that has a safe water supply.

Boris Johnson.

Agreed

Massive environmental impact, but unpopular idea.

Matter Out Of Place

Only ever heard it being used in relation to burning man.

It's a hard definition of rubbish being "anything that doesn't belong there" so even if it's natural it's not acceptable to leave it

SUVs and private planes

Capitalism.

We have been doing this for decades in Scandinavia. We take all our cans and bottles back to the supermarket, put them into a machine and the machine gives out a voucher to use in the shop. A can gives you about 5p back, a large plastic bottle about 40p. The good thing is also that there are never any cans and bottles thrown on the streets as they get picked up by less fortunate people who then makes a little bit of money towards food from them. We have been doing this since 1984 in Sweden.

This is the system in Germany (and probably other countries too). There is a “Pfand” (deposit) of something like 40 cents on every bottle. Supermarkets and other places have exactly those “reverse vending machines”. You can return bottles and print out a token that you can use towards your shopping or get paid out in cash.
Most of the bottles are reusable, including sturdy PET plastic bottles. Single use plastic does exist but it’s a lot less. And as the deposit still applies to them they are also more likely to be returned where they can be recycled centrally.
No idea why the UK can’t introduce a system like that.

Fossil fuels. Completely impractical, but realistically, it's what's needed.

More manageable - plastic packaging. All of it.

Taking responsibility away from individuals who are made to feel that if only they worked a bit harder they could personally make a difference to these issues and putting it back with multinational megacompanies who are the ones who can actually change things.