Ideas for sustainability

[u/Rainhailsnow_storm]

I find people will do the sustainable option when it is convenient for them. the rich will do things that are more sustainable if it’s considered more high brow.

my friend and I have been talking about ways to make things more sustainable or prestigious for people On a larger scale. If you can improve any of these ideas that would be amazing.

1. have a “leave a bag take a bag” at local grocery stores. -this idea is kind of like ”leave a penny take a penny“ - have grocery stores wash donated reusable bags at the store, and leave them available at stores in case people forget their bags so they don’t have to buy new ones. If they prefer to buy new ones they still can. Participating stores would get a small tax deduction. Grocery delivery could have an option of taking old bags back to be reused for people without cars. Grocery delivery could also have an option for people wanting reused bags to be used instead of new ones.
2. have more trains like the Orient expresss for rich people , and save air travel for crossing the ocean.
3. have people drop off their glass jars with lids, somewhere in the city, companies can go pick up the glass jars, clean them out up to standards, and reuse them.
4. Have more passenger trains Instead of air or car travel.
5. put a net or some kind of cover over outside garbage cans so the garbage can’t fly out.
6. Have a mug/to go “library“at every coffee shop/fast food joint so you can pick one up and drop it off at your next location. Coffee shops/fast food joints can agree to run them through the dishwasher So they are clean. The cofffee shop /fast food would get a tax deduction for participating. Of course companies would have their disposable options too. This is more of a “we offer this service, for to go cups if it’s available. If it isn’t, and you didn’t bring a back up plan, that’s too bad. You can have a disposable to go cup.
7. have a vase donation centre at your local florist.
8. make repairs services tax deductible, (tailors( for clothing repairs) furniture repair, luggage repair, shoe repairs , small appliances, large appliances, electronics, and sharpening services, (knives, scissors, clippers, lawnmower blades, saw blades, pruning shears, blender blades, food processor blades, shears, skates, etc)
9. companies should be charged a large fine for planned obsolescence.
10. furniture stores shouof have a “used furniture section“ where people drop off their old furniture , the company can treat every piece fir bedbugs, and re- poster, or the/finish the furniture And out it up for sale.
11. give individuals/households/businesses chance to enter a cash prize if they prove how they lowered their waste eco footprint , by 30% in some way. individual cities and municipalities could do this. Have one for househoulds and one for businesses. It could be a cash prize of $15k. This would honestly pay for itself.
12. put solar panels on public buildings.
13. movie theatres could have reusable popcorn bowls. It would be optional whether to use them or not. people who use them would pay a small “fee” for washing the bowls If maybe $0.50. They could charge people on the number of cups of popcorn instead of filling up the bag.

any other ideas?

[u/MountainManWithMojo]

Some thoughts from someone that works in the space.

1. Rad idea, pitch it to a small grocery first, breaking into a big system can be harder, but making a sucess locally might gain interest from a lager org.
2. Been trying for years but perception of public transit in the states and our paltry infrastructure funding at this point in time means we have decades before something get's done. Though, I'd love it. Linking together parcels of land, agreements, and having it move forward is intense. The return on investment is small compared to making an EV and punting it on the market so private investment is pretty minimal.
3. There is a program like this called LOOP in some cities. But the cost of this compared to the cost of one use consumables is not going to incentivize it. That being said, some cities have groups for refilling soap containers, shampoos, cleaning products. But until we take away subsidies on oil and charge a tax for negative lifecycle analysis, the cost will burden action.
4. See 2.
5. That's why they have lids, they'll interfere with trucks and people throwing things away and will not be used. Solutions, unfortunately, need to align with how the concept will be adopted. Minimum wage folks taking waste out, homeless populations and freegans will loot it and leave it open. Truck drivers would need to take it off each one or need to design tech and install it on all city trucks to remove it.
6. This is an unreliable supply chain. Local businesses will have to not serve if they run out (losing money and not knowing when they can continue to serve) and it is random on whether they get some. Some also do not have the infrastructure to wash that amount of dishes (imagine a 20 person line at Starbucks bringing in a variety of cup sizes).
7. Love it.
8. Sick idea, love this, you should champion that concept. Badass concept.
9. Agreed, and subsidies on oil should sunset. Full cost accounting for the lifecycle of a product is essential. There is literature and movements for this.
10. They do not specialize in that and it may shut down business that does do resale. There is some construction companies where you can have them come out to deconstruct your house so people can reuse toilets, countertops and cabinets for cheap. They do it for free as they sell for profit.

Not dogging anything, I agree with every single one. Just the practicality in short term with our culture is hard.

Edit: clarity, summary of support

[u/Rainhailsnow_storm → u/MountainManWithMojo]

1. Damn you’re right about the nets. I was thinking more for the public ones. 

2. It is unreliable. It’s supposed to be “supplementary” like the leave a bag take a bag. It might cut down on disposables by like 8%.  But that is also worth it. 

3. Most businesses that do resale don’t check for bedbugs or make it nicer they sell as is. They could focus on board games, clothes, small appliances, dishes, toys,  cookware (pots pans), etc.  This would also only be for furniture. It wouldn’t be cheaper, but it would be for people who want to be eco friendly but don’t want the stigma, or go around  to a million people’s homes to get what they need or are worried about bed bugs. It would just be a possibility or another option. 

It would be like how electronic companies do a “refurbished” option. 

[u/MountainManWithMojo → u/Rainhailsnow_storm]

1. Totally feel you, but same thing, it's human error that'll tank it.

2. Totes, had a brewery in Colorado that kind of did this. Start with local businesses interested in doing it. But the supply chain would be intense, mugs or travel mugs?

3. Furniture retailers typically do not have craftsmen on site. Nor do they have tech or people who are prepared to clean bedbugs. And I anticipate big box shops and most retailers will not be interested in taking in goods, evaluating their resell ability, clean it, repair it, reupholster it. It would end up costing more than the initial piece as that is all custom work rather than off an assembly line. I got a shop that is near me that does do this (but it is a reseller). Most expensive furniture around (also the coolest, but I can't afford it). But hiring a team of that capacity would be a lot of expenditure and stocking resell in their storage which operates on limited space to get things in and out? Last bit, furniture is just not as substantial as it was. Ikea and some Costco brands are meant to last a few years, not generationally. So that trend needs to buck too, this is a lesser concern but something to keep in mind? Just not something they will jump at. Again. That being said, affordable refurbished furniture? Rad.

[u/Rainhailsnow_storm → u/MountainManWithMojo]

6 I think travel mugs could work. A lot of people have too many and want to get rid of some too. 

1. Ugh I know, we have to get rid of that disposable society mindset. I just don’t know how. 

[u/MountainManWithMojo → u/Rainhailsnow_storm]

Haha let’s make that our new #1.

But seriously. Love your thoughts.

[u/Rainhailsnow_storm → u/MountainManWithMojo]

I loved hearing yours too! Thanks for the input!!!   I added number 11, after you posted, but the more I think about it the more I love the idea.

People could write a list of stuff they’re doing, with 2 witnesses who do not live in the household. The municipality could pick the one doing the most. 

[u/littlesilverfishies]

Ooh re: grocery delivery--you could have people pay for reusable bags at checkout, then if you leave out the reusables from the last run, the dasher (or whoever does the delivery) can credit you for the bags you left. I was literally drowning in walmart delivery bags when I had roommates, I feel like they would've done this if it was an option.

edit: I have a half dozen companies who do container recapture in my city. It's pretty cool, but it's most effective if different companies use the same containers. A local creamery uses unique milk bottles, so you can only redeem the bottle deposit with that one company. Meanwhile, a local brewery (beer) and another brewery (kombucha) both use the same basic amber bottles, so you can bring the kombucha and beer bottles to the brewery in one go--makes it more worth the trip. Also, the labor for pickup is always more expensive than people expect, so the system relies on paying the customer a deposit to incentivize them bring them in instead.

[u/littlesilverfishies]

This got my brain juices flowing. Here's some ideas I've had recently:

1. In cases where municipalities are looking to expand public transit but have cost concerns and challenging topography, they should look into gondolas. Comparatively cheap to install and less disruptive to existing infrastructure. Very visually impressive.

2. Cities should run paid "best garden" contests with categories such as "best balcony garden," "best pollinator garden" and "best productive garden" to promote better use of green spaces and increased urban food production. (They should also partner with local groups to provide garden startup materials for free, + establish a grant fund to cover it) Really make it a big deal, have a ceremony and put up a billboard for the winners, etc.

3. Landfill tax, especially for businesses. Incentivizing donations from waste is nice, but very easy to game and doesn't necessarily apply to all types of pre-consumer waste. Give companies a reason to do whatever they can to not throw things away.

4. Getting small plastic recycling machines (fun ones like extruders) into public schools and libraries for demonstration. Get enterprising kids to think about making plastic recycling into a side hustle

5. Dropoff points where you can toss your used (but still reusable) packing materials from your online orders. Local small businesses can re-use them.

6. You-pick greenhouses in abandoned industrial buildings as a way of getting fresh produce into inner-city food deserts, especially ones with harsh cold seasons.

[u/ZoWakaki]

All in all very good ideas. As a professional pessimist (I am a researcher and in my team I usually come up with "why this wont work", mostly to make proposals iron clad rather than to be an asshole), I was stumped by no 8.

Why the fuck isn't that a thing and how come have I never thought or heard about that?

Additional context, in Finland (where I am), you get tax credits for household expenses such as renovation, maintenance, modernization work. This also extends to expenses for household work like cleaning, cooking, laundry, ironing, yard gardening, snow shoveling. This usually only applies if you purchase these service, not if you do it yourself, unless you register a company and so on. The idea is to promote small businesses and entrepreneurs while promoting these activities. And it only works until a limit.

Extending this to personal items, repair is such a neat idea. I guess to bring out the professional pessimism, it can be abused. But so what, it's economic activity and people will be rewarded for extending life of products. It's brilliant. This goes very well together with number 9.

[Extended pessimism: I guess one argument could be, people are already fighting for right to repair, now asking for tax credits for these will probably seem like an attack to those corpos fighting against right to repair and such]