<story><title>Ten Rivers Contribute Most of the Plastic in the Oceans (2018)</title><url>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stemming-the-plastic-tide-10-rivers-contribute-most-of-the-plastic-in-the-oceans/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ab8</author><text>Plastic use has to be curtailed at source. If developed countries with lower populations are using many times more plastic than developing countries with larger populations, it is time to look in the mirror.&lt;p&gt;It is not fair to allow some countries to make decisions based on economics but expect others to be ecologically responsible. Let&amp;#x27;s see how the US handles its own trash now, since China has stopped importing it.</text></item><item><author>yholio</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t understand how this diminishes the fault of the countries. They took the garbage, got paid for it or profited from the valuable recyclables, then dumped the refuse into the rivers. 50% of the garbage comes from a single river that flows entirely within China.&lt;p&gt;I understand you can&amp;#x27;t put the blame on a people as a whole and there are bad actors there, but a sovereign country needs to take responsibility.</text></item><item><author>sambeau</author><text>While reading this I think it&amp;#x27;s worth taking into account that not all the plastic waste originates in these countries, some of it is western trash sent there for recycling. At one point China was importing more than half of the World&amp;#x27;s plastic waste.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nationalgeographic.co.uk&amp;#x2F;environment-and-conservation&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;where-does-your-plastic-waste-end&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nationalgeographic.co.uk&amp;#x2F;environment-and-conserv...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;And though China has now stopped accepting the West&amp;#x27;s waste it still house mountains to deal with plus the problem has just shifted to Southeast Asia instead&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nationalgeographic.com&amp;#x2F;environment&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;china-ban-plastic-trash-imports-shifts-waste-crisis-southeast-asia-malaysia&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nationalgeographic.com&amp;#x2F;environment&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;china...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>reaperducer</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s see how the US handles its own trash now, since China has stopped importing it.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Well, there was a New York Times article a few weeks ago about how the cardboard that used to be shipped to China for recycling is now being recycled domestically into Amazon boxes, and paper mills in Wisconsin are reopening, being retrofitted to handle recycled cardboard, and bringing workers back to run them.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;22&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;cardboard.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nytimes.com&amp;#x2F;2019&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;22&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;cardboard.html&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Ten Rivers Contribute Most of the Plastic in the Oceans (2018)</title><url>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stemming-the-plastic-tide-10-rivers-contribute-most-of-the-plastic-in-the-oceans/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ab8</author><text>Plastic use has to be curtailed at source. If developed countries with lower populations are using many times more plastic than developing countries with larger populations, it is time to look in the mirror.&lt;p&gt;It is not fair to allow some countries to make decisions based on economics but expect others to be ecologically responsible. Let&amp;#x27;s see how the US handles its own trash now, since China has stopped importing it.</text></item><item><author>yholio</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t understand how this diminishes the fault of the countries. They took the garbage, got paid for it or profited from the valuable recyclables, then dumped the refuse into the rivers. 50% of the garbage comes from a single river that flows entirely within China.&lt;p&gt;I understand you can&amp;#x27;t put the blame on a people as a whole and there are bad actors there, but a sovereign country needs to take responsibility.</text></item><item><author>sambeau</author><text>While reading this I think it&amp;#x27;s worth taking into account that not all the plastic waste originates in these countries, some of it is western trash sent there for recycling. At one point China was importing more than half of the World&amp;#x27;s plastic waste.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nationalgeographic.co.uk&amp;#x2F;environment-and-conservation&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;where-does-your-plastic-waste-end&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nationalgeographic.co.uk&amp;#x2F;environment-and-conserv...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;And though China has now stopped accepting the West&amp;#x27;s waste it still house mountains to deal with plus the problem has just shifted to Southeast Asia instead&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nationalgeographic.com&amp;#x2F;environment&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;china-ban-plastic-trash-imports-shifts-waste-crisis-southeast-asia-malaysia&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nationalgeographic.com&amp;#x2F;environment&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;china...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nroets</author><text>Plastic does not need to be curtailed at source. As long as it ends up in well engineered landfills, there&amp;#x27;s no problem.</text></comment>