Not to mention places like Hawaii have outlawed certain chemicals in sunscreens specifically because of these types of issues. It’s not really a question of if anymore but how much and how bad.
People have also outlawed plastic straws, for no good reason whatsoever, while doing less than nothing to stop plastic pollution from fishing equipment.
Making it seem like you're doing something for the environment while not doing anything hard can win plenty of points.
Nice (plastic) straw man argument that has absolutely nothing to do with sunscreen and it’s effects on juvenile coral reefs [1] and other highly sensitive ocean ecosystems. Comparing the two is disingenuous.
> outlawed plastic straws
I’m assuming you’re referring to Vancouver’s single-use plastics reduction legislation. It’s far too convenient to single out plastic straws and then claim it has done nothing when 1, it only went into effect in December 2021 and 2, it covered much more than just straws.
> I’m assuming you’re referring to Vancouver’s single-use plastics reduction legislation. It’s far too convenient to single out plastic straws and then claim it has done nothing when 1, it only went into effect in December 2021 and 2, it covered much more than just straws.
No, I was not referring to that, but I did mis-speak when I said "outlawed". I was referring to the campaign to get rid of plastic straws [0] that took over a lot of the world a few years ago, ending with the almost complete disappearance of plastic straws from restaurants and shops.
> [citation needed]
Here you go [1]:
> But a ban may be a bit of a straw man in the discussions about plastics pollution. Straws make up about 4 percent of the plastic trash by piece, but far less by weight.
> Straws on average weigh so little—about one sixty-seventh of an ounce or .42 grams—that all those billions of straws add up to only about 2,000 tons of the nearly 9 million tons of plastic waste that yearly hits the waters.
It's true that it's not literally nothing, but it has far less impact on the problem than other changes could have; and changes like proper collection of plastic waste could make plastic straws completely irrelevant, while also reducing many other kinds of plastic waste that is far less easily banned. But, of course, that takes much more effort from government and other organizations, so ban straws is all we get.
