Single-use plastic products are used once, or for a short period of time, before being thrown away. Under the EU’s rules on single-use plastics, the EU is tackling the 10 single-use plastic items most commonly found on Europe’s beaches and is promoting sustainable alternatives. The 10 items are
Cotton bud sticks
Cutlery, plates, straws and stirrers
Balloons and sticks for balloons
Food containers
Cups for beverages
Beverage containers
Cigarette butts
Plastic bags
Packets and wrappers
Wet wipes and sanitary items
It’s kind of crazy - those plastic Q-tips are only better if you want to totally wreck your ears and every doctor is warning against that. For every legitimate use, those paper variants work perfectly well
The correct tools are those small plastic containers or a cheap grease gun. You can get the grease better into the bearing with them and don’t have the risk of smearing cotton fiber in there. They are of course more expensive than a q-tip, but you can get one for unter 5€. Seriously, if you do this even a couple times a year, buy one.
(This is also a great example why environmental regulation is so tricky: It totally makes sense to prevent one of the worst polluting product to be phased out or replaced with a better solution. But then there are edge cases (how many people have even greased a bearing in their life?) where the new product might be worse, but that still is not an argument for mass pollution on our beaches or against that regulation)
Just FYI:
https://commission.europa.eu/news/less-plastic-waste-means-cleaner-beaches-2024-08-14_en
So yeah, nets are bad, but straws, plastic bags, cigarettes and packages are also a problem.
Cotton bud stick???
It’s kind of crazy - those plastic Q-tips are only better if you want to totally wreck your ears and every doctor is warning against that. For every legitimate use, those paper variants work perfectly well
how can a paper a tip grease a bearing?
Why would you grease a bearing with a q-tip? Use a proper tool for that!
name a cheaper tool?
The correct tools are those small plastic containers or a cheap grease gun. You can get the grease better into the bearing with them and don’t have the risk of smearing cotton fiber in there. They are of course more expensive than a q-tip, but you can get one for unter 5€. Seriously, if you do this even a couple times a year, buy one.
(This is also a great example why environmental regulation is so tricky: It totally makes sense to prevent one of the worst polluting product to be phased out or replaced with a better solution. But then there are edge cases (how many people have even greased a bearing in their life?) where the new product might be worse, but that still is not an argument for mass pollution on our beaches or against that regulation)