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Faux WHAT???

Posted by Storo 2 years, 8 months ago to Culture
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My wife and I are doing some remodeling of our house. I’m looking at materials for the house, and what I’m finding is everything is turning to plastic, or I should say vinyl. The the thought came to mind as I looked through my plastic options, just where are the environmentalists in all this?
Vinyl and other plastics are made from petroleum and other fossil fuels. Environmentally, and unlike the cO2 from cars which gets recycled within our atmosphere, once plastic is produced it’s here forever.
The big thing in home remodeling today is vinyl flooring. And it’s going in everywhere. It is generally a bit cheaper than some carpets, and about half the price of traditional hardwood floors. It’s being pushed by manufacturers, installers, floor contractors and the Big Box stores.
There are numerous other materials being made of these plastics. Faux this and faux that. Shower pans and enclosures, bathtubs, doors and windows, and even some that mimic ceramic tile, counter tops and bathroom sinks. The list goes on. And let’s not forget all of the things we find on automobiles today that used to be steel or wood or some other material that is much more environmentally friendly, but are now vinyl or plastic like the car’s body panels, the bumpers, seat “fabrics”, body trim. The shiny chrome grilles on the front of cars? You guessed it. Plastic. You would think all the shiny chrome and bodies made of plastic would result in cheaper cars for the public. So when was the last time you heard Ford or GM announce a price reduction? Neither did I.
But back to the question. Where the hell are the environmentalists? AWOL. That’s where, and God only knows why. Once produced, plastics are there forever. Bury them in a landfill if you wish, but 100,000 years from now archeologists will dig them up and wonder what they were for. So why isn’t this an issue for the green crowd?
In order to produce all this plastic junk, oil and/or coal need to be produced. That, and the processing ofvthis material into the parts and pieces requires other noxious chemicals, and the release of these chemicals and hydrocarbon by-products into the atmosphere. We hear about harmful cow farts, but not a word about plastic manufacturing gasses and vaporous by-products.
Of course we could push them into a campaign against plastics, but then where would we get our faux wood flooring?


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  • Posted by freedomforall 2 years, 8 months ago
    Builders like plastic because it is cheaper to buy and cheaper to install.
    Then it wears out (or looks worn out) sooner and it can't be repaired,
    so more replacement business in the future.
    Home builders are in the business to get wealthy, not deliver quality.
    With the help of local government there is very little innovation in
    housing construction unless it makes things cheaper to build
    regardless of long term value to end user.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 2 years, 7 months ago
    If environmentalists were honest, they would walk everywhere, on woven hemp sandals, dressed in cotton and wool. They would live on a diet of raw plant food and live in an underground wood hut without light or heat. Of course none of them do that, so hypocrisy is standard.
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  • Posted by bobbitchen34 2 years, 7 months ago
    Just about everything fun requires plastic these days. Kayaks, surfing, skiing and many others.
    There has to be more to it than working, paying taxes and dying.
    Plastic is a miracle and I love it.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 2 years, 7 months ago
    I think it is an interesting contradiction. On the one hand you have entrepreneurs who are providing products that fill a need. For those who argue about the quality of such wares I would point out that most of today's society has been dumbed down into believing that constantly replacing cheap things is better than buying quality in the first place. caveat emptor has been replaced with Veruca Salt (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Add to that the government push of perpetual inflation to drive constant/instant consumerism rather than saving for the long-term and you have all the cultural ingredients for such products.

    On the other side you have the delusional "environmentalists" who can't look past their brand new iPhones to see the supply chains which allow them to be activists without having a productive income. The dissonance just doesn't even register with them for some reason. (Actually, it has nothing to do with reason. ;)
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  • Posted by mccannon01 2 years, 7 months ago
    This is my opinion based on what I've learned over 70 years of being on the planet. I don't worry about plastics that last "forever" because at the bottom line, except being unsightly for a time, they have no more impact on the planet than a rock. For the most part they certainly aren't "killing us" because in 1900 the average American life span was 49 and the fact we live now to mid 70s or a lot longer is because we do have plastics that last "forever". Worrying over the fact that most plastics outlast our life spans is irrelevant from a planetary point of view because, like rocks, mother earth will eventually recycle the whole lot through plate tectonics or some other natural function. Earth don't care about us - it's going to do what it's going to do.

    This opinion does not mean I am somehow against responsible handling of man made materials or the manufacturing of those materials. Recycling is good for preservation of resources as well as maintaining the beauty of the natural scenery, but that's a selfish thing from man's point of view - Earth don't care.
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 2 years, 7 months ago
    Modern environmentalism (forgive my language) is pretty much bullshit. It's just a bunch of happy talk and political pandering. In my engineering work I've proposed real solutions to helping mother earth but nobody who I'd consider to be deep in the movement is willing to budget an extra dime toward such efforts. So...we get what you describe. We're surrounded in polymers. Frankly, I often wonder about the health implications of sitting for hours in a tightly sealed car that's full of the stuff, wearing clothes full of it, etc. And...as you mention, there's the petroleum source. A modern philosopher I listen to once said, "Ecological stewardship requires surplus dollars." Meanwhile, the proponents of LEED (google that one) will actually say that it costs LESS to build a LEED building. As a designer of such buildings I get a good belly-laugh over that. The environmental movement is rife with invalid premises, fiction, and unemployed architects trying to scratch out any existence they can.
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 2 years, 7 months ago
    We have four Labrador retrievers. We are replacing our hardwood floors (the dogs are removing it) with hardwood-floor tiles. Many tiles look just like hardwood, and the phucking dogs can't remove it!
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  • Posted by $ Markus_Katabri 2 years, 7 months ago
    There are actual environmentalists out there that recognize the FAUX Environmental Movement as pure GRIFT! Sadly their voices are shrieked down by the mindless masses.
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