25 y old me drinking water from a months old soda bottle

I actually had to stop after I realized it was the culprit behind my weird breathing problems, I think it was full of bacteria and gave me a chest infection and I was coughing up a bit of blood lol. I now drink out of glass

I feel like they’re used to things lasting longer

Also not everyone can afford (or wants to) live in a disposable way

Why would people try to reuse something they already bought instead of buying something new? Hmm 🤔

A lot of people just don’t realise that reusing disposable containers like takeout food or water/soda bottles is hazardous to their health. It’s absolutely a global issue.

It’s not just about the multiple known carcinogens that leach out on contact with food or water, and can do so even faster as the bottle takes unavoidable damage over time, after being washed, when exposed to heat, or with UV exposure.

All of these things result in tiny scratches and cracks in the plastic which also become bacterial breeding grounds. There is no way to clean or sterilize them, attempts to do so will only result in more damage, which means more chemical leaching and more places for bacteria to hide.

The only way to avoid this is to only put food or drink in contact with non-porous reusable materials like glass, metal, or stoneware.

Thriftiness+Being Poor.

Probably grew up with depression era parents, or themselves lived through the tail end of it. Thrift and reuse were a must, but today those habits… well, some people have difficulty just throwing out the daily onslaught of junk-mail, let alone soda bottles and takeout boxes.

chemical companies have known about the health risks associated with plastics for decades, they’re constantly throwing up their arms saying ‘we didn’t know, we’ll remove the newly highly publicized chemical!!’, and we’re all expected to move on like the problem is gone. but anyway, the rich will kill us before the chemicals do. or not.

I was reading about forever chemicals recently, and those fluffy plastic sponges are made of very similar shit to carcinogenic fire suppression foams, anything that is ‘water resistant’, ‘non stick’, fuck i’m just so tired, I grew up drinking out of hoses, and plastic cups that stink of death, I think i’m just fucked, i’ve mostly given up.

I’m determined to stop smoking again though, so thats something.

They developed a taste for microplastics

Because we’ve been around a very long time.

You know the shit never breaks down… You know the shit probably never gets recycled… You know there aren’t enough proper incinerators to adequately destroy the shit properly… You know that when you throw it away it just winds up in back in the air or water or food… You know that the thing is bad but it still works toward some function… You know that when you replace it you will just be replacing it with the same exact horrible thing… You know that if you try to replace them with newer things it will cost money you don’t have… You know that manufacturers make things that are shitty and will break quickly with regular use and it will cost you more to get it replaced than just keeping the old thing that “still works” even though it looks fucking disgusting…

Their parents are from the tail end of the depression era and the frugal habits from back then are still lingering. Even I feel weird throwing away something that’s not outright broken, despite knowing it’s probably starting to get gross.

Not-cleaning the coffee maker or kettle isn’t unique to old people unfortunately, out of sight out of mind.

I would advise you to be less rude and hostile to people who answer your question, no matter what you think about the answer.

i do this. freezer’s full of old yogurt containers and plastic tupperware with soup and stuff. Idk what else to do

Keeps our immune system strong

Plastic-punk is a product of growing up poor in the 70s and 80s.

I couldn’t tell you but my friends notice it with their parents and it seems to get worse with age like they form an emotional attachment to their non stick pan which leaches a healthy dose of teflon into their food. I think a lot of people are acutely aware that waste is bad ut don’t go the extra mile and get non disposable things like glass containers, steel/iron pans, user servicable devices.

I want to keep things for a long time but i make sure to get things that will actually last long. I replaced all my dissolving plastic tupperware with glass because it just makes more sense for longevity. Although it took me a long time to realise my half dissolved, stained sticky plastic containers were probably not good. The worst offenders were the two I had since i moved out, absolutely reeked but I found them hard to get rid of cos we’d been through so much together. Me and my stinky plastic box.

My parents don’t seem to horde old rotting shit but they have the opposite problem and generate absurd amounts of waste instead.