queerlilhayseed comments on California moves to outlaw disposable vapes, a toxic trash plague from beaches to battery fires

[–] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I am speaking metaphorically. But if you discount tactical victories because you're waiting for the be-all, end-all solution, you're going to be waiting for a long time. Every ounce of waste that doesn't go into landfills today is an ounce we won't have to deal with tomorrow, and that is a win. Similarly, every legislative action that curbs some small subset of pollution frees up resources to work toward the next small victory. Winning a battle doesn't mean the war is over, but wars are won by winning battles.

Also not sure what you mean by "changing the system". Clearly you are dissatisfied by this legislation, but this is changing the system. And large, complicated systems generally change one small change at a time.

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[–] Mobiuthuselah@mander.xyz 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I'm dissatisfied that there isn't a course of action for consumers to recycle or dispose of batteries at their end of use. As I discussed with someone else, I can appreciate that it is a step towards something better, and that is something, but it seems like it will take ongoing catastrophes in waste management to highlight that there needs to be a solution for what someone does with the battery at the end. This needs to be considered.

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[–] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

As am I. And unfortunately, we have an ongoing catastrophe in waste management right now that is largely being ignored, this particular legislation being an all-too-rare exception.

I think it would be quite cool if we could manage a comprehensive standardization of all batteries, and have legislation that requires all devices to use standard removable / replaceable batteries, and have municipal recycling systems where residents could dispose of old batteries of all types with no fee, or even swap an old battery for a new one. Domestic battery reconditioning would provide jobs, reduce waste, and reduce our dependence on foreign minerals. Heck, it might even end up helping device manufacturers in the long term if they can assume that consumers have access to batteries that don't have to be shipped overseas. Seems like a slam dunk to me.

But, until I become a congressional majority leader, or congress becomes significantly cooler about stuff, I don't think I have much of a chance of getting that passed. So I settle for smaller wins while I work on getting the big stuff viable.

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[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago (1 child)

I settle for smaller wins

And that's the crux of the issue. Instead of demanding real solutions, you'll settle for nonsense that accomplishes very little so you can feel like you've won something and don't press the issue further but chastise those that don't jump on the bandwagon with you.

You already addressed what a real solution would look like, but since you think it's impossible to achieve, you've given up and want to condemn anyone who isnt perfectly aligned with you on whatever hill you've chosen to die on.

This is just like paper straws or soda taxes. Stop settling for small wins because that's exactly what the goons running things want you to do

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[–] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago

If you refer back to the rest of the sentence, you'll see that I do in fact press the issue further. The trick is to do both. My beef is with those who point to the incremental gains as some kind of evidence that revolutionary change is impossible: not only is that not true, incremental gains are often how revolutionary change happens. People think revolutionary change happens spontaneously in an instant of public fervor because they don't see the building toward it that happens one small policy change at a time. The idea that one has to choose one over the other is false and, in my experience, leads to inaction, frustration, and burnout. You gotta do both.

And what of my "real solution"? Even that is just a small piece of the overall puzzle. If I were to accomplish the goal I set out in that post (a task that I neither think is impossible nor have given up on), would I then be able to rest on my laurels and assume that the planet had been saved forever? No. There would still be much to do to solve the big problem. And big problems are solved one piece at a time.

The goons running things want despair and inaction. They fight the small wins because they know that they are the building blocks to bigger wins.

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[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago*

so i'm a cannabis consumer, not a nicotine consumer. but i have two dispensaries i use. the reasons i chose these two in particular are the same: they're friendly, and they have a prominent [recycle your old batteries/cartridges here] bin. also they're reasonably priced, but if they weren't they'd have gone out of buisness.

if your nicotine juice place doesn't have a recycling bin, maybe ask? it's one of those customer service things they'd add if they knew people wanted one. like, there were cigarette butts all over this one park in town because it didn't have any ashtrays. i put cement in the bottom of a cheap aluminum ash bucket, put it by one of the benches, and now all the smokers smoke at that bench and toss their butts. cost like 50 bucks but the city wasn't going to do it.

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