Unfortunately, I don’t think the world’s emerging situation will allow people to live en-masse (in ever-growing numbers) in cities in their current form for too much longer.
Cities are more efficient than rural communities. Concentration of people is better than spreading everyone out. You’d see much more environmental destruction if everyone moved rural. Plus it’s much harder to get resources to rural communities. Modifications should be made but everyone pooping in the woods in a bucket isn’t a good idea either.
We already do. Lots of rural communities already use septic tanks for waste management instead. And there really isn’t a good alternative for landfills. You can compost food but that’s only like half the waste.
We will have to ban single-use plastics (and plastics being used unnecessarily), planned obsolescence as a concept for product development, non-repairable/disposable electronics/products, etc. to really make a dent on landfill usage. But as you say, it’s hard to get around landfills completely when capitalism is this out of control.
We need to produce products that can actually be recycled (without the use of toxic chemicals or PFAs), produce more products locally vs. shipping them across the world (using glass to replace most plastic use). We likely need to reinvent garbage collection (what’s acceptable to throw out), a revolution in recycling and product design, education campaigns on recycling and proper garbage disposal, and DIY movements to restore older electronics to their glory using open and free solutions.
Alot of that just isn’t something we can do inside cities
Unfortunately, I don’t think the world’s emerging situation will allow people to live en-masse (in ever-growing numbers) in cities in their current form for too much longer.
Cities are more efficient than rural communities. Concentration of people is better than spreading everyone out. You’d see much more environmental destruction if everyone moved rural. Plus it’s much harder to get resources to rural communities. Modifications should be made but everyone pooping in the woods in a bucket isn’t a good idea either.
Well we should recognize cities and rural are basically different countries that needs different laws, policy and governance.
We already do. Lots of rural communities already use septic tanks for waste management instead. And there really isn’t a good alternative for landfills. You can compost food but that’s only like half the waste.
We will have to ban single-use plastics (and plastics being used unnecessarily), planned obsolescence as a concept for product development, non-repairable/disposable electronics/products, etc. to really make a dent on landfill usage. But as you say, it’s hard to get around landfills completely when capitalism is this out of control.
We need to produce products that can actually be recycled (without the use of toxic chemicals or PFAs), produce more products locally vs. shipping them across the world (using glass to replace most plastic use). We likely need to reinvent garbage collection (what’s acceptable to throw out), a revolution in recycling and product design, education campaigns on recycling and proper garbage disposal, and DIY movements to restore older electronics to their glory using open and free solutions.
It’s fun when someone comments something you completely agree with :). My only response is “yes”