The biggest plastic polluters in Europe

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Күн бұрын

We explore the good and the bad of this terribly addictive substance: plastic. Our thanks to UCC student Maebh Daly and Dublin City Councillor Michael Pidgeon for speaking to us.
Summary of The Mirrlees Review on VAT Rates:
economics.mit....
#plastic #planet #ireland #recycling #europe #policy #environment

Пікірлер: 35

@kuba_sw 7 ай бұрын

As a Pole living in Ireland, I absolutely hate coming back from the shops with a ton of fruit and veggies wrapped in layers of plastic as opposed to what I’ve experienced in Poland.

@The_Alpha_E 2 ай бұрын

atleast the food itself is of higher purer quality

@pappabaz 10 ай бұрын

Great to see such a well made, researched and balanced channel that has excellent suggestions. Great work. So many channels are click bait and doom, this is so refreshing. Thank you

@brendansweeney7468 10 ай бұрын

The amount of plastic in Ireland is unbelievable. Just try to get your shopping without coming home with a rake of plastic. I grab the loose fruits and vegetables when I can but that is only a small portion of a typical trip. I think they need to regulate more severely single use plastics in this country. Adding a higher VAT really puts the pressure on the average shopper when there is unlikely to be loose / non-plastic wrapped alternative.

@matthewmacgabhann 3 ай бұрын

Great video. Well researched and edited. I love how you give arguments on both sides and potential practical solutions.

@paikiwika 9 ай бұрын

I see plastic produce packaging at supermarkets as serving three purposes other than sanitation. One is that it makes the food appear more presentable. Second is that a predetermined quantity can be easily packaged together. Third is that you can slap barcodes on them making them easier to process at checkout.

@g00dbyemisterA 9 ай бұрын

I absolutely agree! however the amount you get is not consistent, I have found (I track my intake and had a package of tenderstem broccoli that was advertised as "120g" be 83g on my home scale) I know many people would not like it, but I do think that the in store scales are good, I like to know how much I am getting and they print out their own barcodes that are easy enough to scan as long as you know how to put them on properly.

@paikiwika 9 ай бұрын

@@g00dbyemisterA I’ve encountered minor differences in weight when I weighed pre-weighed produce, but I never saw such a stark difference as in your broccoli example. Sounds fishy. I’ve only seen customer weighs and barcode printout for things like bulk nuts and trail mix, but not produce, but it still brings me to my point about efficient checkout. The old school way is the cashier would put it on the scale at the checkout counter and enter a product code, which takes more time, especially for items that the cashier didn’t know the code for offhand.

@dazzlesMCskins 10 ай бұрын

I'm more interested in the infrastructure/urban planning videos, but this was still really fascinating. I think it's worth pointing out that if people are concerned about the inconvenience and hygiene of handling, say, bare potatoes or apples, that doesn't mean we can't still cut down on how much plastic we use. We can still give people the option to buy fruit and veg in fixed amounts, using paper bags and cardboard boxes. We already do this with some vegetables, why not do it with everything! ...Well, everything expect bananas, because they come with their own built-in packaging and coupling system...

@shxdowplay_ 10 ай бұрын

Never thought I'd see my hometown Tesco featured in a YT video! Nicely done 🤝

@MrPkennedy91 8 ай бұрын

Great video and a great channel!

@P5YCHO1192 5 ай бұрын

I work in a waste management company and people seem to be really against how much plastic waste they produce. Even in my house, 4 people, we recycle responsibly and by the end of every 2 weeks the bin is crammed. We try to avoid plastic wrapped fruit & veg, but its almost unavoidable!

@EoinReardon 9 ай бұрын

excellent video

@The_Alpha_E 2 ай бұрын

true...

@michaelmulligan0 2 ай бұрын

Problem isn’t the supermarket it’s the manufacturer

@pinkpurplewho 10 ай бұрын

Great to see another video

@peterlaurent9905 9 ай бұрын

great video well done. where can i buy you a coffee?

@johnrodgers2018 7 ай бұрын

Great channel, I feel very strongly about the environment and plastic pollution but I think the new recycling scheme in Ireland where you need to bring bottles back to the shop to redeem a deposit paid when purchased doesn't seem well thought out. Surely the government can come up with better solutions.

@22rabbits 10 ай бұрын

I like the idea of a tax on product using unnecessary plastic but feel we already pay far too much tax in Ireland. For me it comes down to if we can trust the government to be fair in it's administration of taxes in general. So really until they gain my/our trust I will be opposed to most any additional tax schemes.

@polysee 10 ай бұрын

Fair enough I think. We added in a qualifier here, saying government could use extra revenues to reduce top rate, which at 23% is high by international standards

@22rabbits 10 ай бұрын

@@polysee that's the trust issue.

@TailJack 10 ай бұрын

I feel more like we don't get value (services & infrastructure) for the tax we pay. The tax isn't particularly high by European standards, but service provision is also rather poor by comparison. That goes back to what you say about trust. Are they competent enough to efficiently use the tax revenue? I also feel that competence and the ability to get value for money is a much bigger issue than outright illegal corruption. My sense is a lot more potential value is lost by inefficiency compared to grift.

@sundersquare 10 ай бұрын

great vid. would like some guidance on a call to action for making a difference. the fact we are the worst in Europe is an embarrassment

@ShapeyFiend 5 ай бұрын

Certainly this needs to be incentivised at the manufacturer's end rather than lumped on the consumer. Having to go to the shop return plastic is annoying I'd rather just have glass if that's what's required. Coke in a glass bottles much nicer for starters.