• Scrommis@lemmy.zip
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    7 months ago

    It does help in a pretty big way - every piece of trash in landfill is one less in the ocean.

    Plus landfills will be literal goldmines in 50 years as we development advanced recycling technologies and robots.

    • nossaquesapao
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      7 months ago

      On the other hand, landfills leak contaminants to the soil and water, produce a lot of methane, and probably other things too. I’d also argue that they give a illusion of a problem solved, and lead people and companies into not wanting to reduce trash production.

      • odium@programming.dev
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        7 months ago

        There’s also the fact that a lot of your trash doesn’t go to landfills, but instead gets shipped to developing countries where they often dump it into Wall-E style open air trash mountains.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        7 months ago

        When I was a kid, it was “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle”. The order was quite intentional.

        Nobody ever talks about the first two anymore. Probably because they are wildly anti-consumption and thus bad for business.

        I went on vacation recently. Visited Houston, Austin, and Dallas by EV. I was, and still am, amazed that the giant gas stations along the highway (Buc-ees, Road Ranger) are still using Styrofoam cups at the soda fountain. I can’t believe those are even still being made.