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silentorange813 t1_j8rrrfo wrote

Reply to comment by Darwins_Dog in [OC] Plastic waste emitted to the ocean per country by sometiara1

They do import waste. That's true. But a lot of locals have zero environmental awareness and treat the ocean as a garbage can.

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brushclub t1_jacss2l wrote

it's always important to educate those with little awareness! only way we can make an impact

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ryanasmith94 t1_j8rtjwg wrote

And having been born in a place that a system they do not control has decided is the world's plastic dump might have something to do with that?

Hard to blame the locals lack of environmental awareness when the evidence of global systemic failure is staring you in the face but you managed lol

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Breaker-of-circles t1_j8rueyl wrote

This.

Rich countries with their more advanced tech can't recycle their own shit so they send it to poor countries, then pretend they're clean and make charts like this.

Recycling is pretty much a scam outside of metals.

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_AlreadyTaken_ t1_j8rypo1 wrote

Regions mainly trade waste within regions. The Philippines waste is mainly from Asian countries such as Japan.

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jbcmh81 t1_j8schh8 wrote

Is the Philippines forced to take anyone else's trash, though?

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vlsdo t1_j8t397w wrote

No, they do it because there's money to be made from it. In a sense, you could say they're forced into it by the global economy, although it's more like an emergent behavior in response to economic factors rather than true coercion.

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jbcmh81 t1_j8te4qg wrote

This seems like an issue with their government then.

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vlsdo t1_j8texpv wrote

And the governments of all the countries that export their plastics with full knowledge they're ending up in the ocean

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jbcmh81 t1_j8u8dgu wrote

I'm not absolving them, but plenty of nations get trash and it doesn't end up in the ocean to anywhere near the degree that it does in the Philippines. So they should be taking only what they can actually process. Again, they're under no obligation to take anything at all.

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silentorange813 t1_j8rwrvf wrote

People had low awareness prior to trash being imported, and thus I don't see a cause and effect relationship there. In addition, the level of waste differs widely by island and village. The variation in regulations and education likely play a large role.

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