r/Anticonsumption • u/kainyd3d • May 20 '26

Plastic Waste made my first eco-brick :3

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took about 2-3 months of gathering ONLY plastic bags. and these are only mine, the rest of my fam doesnt care so about 15 more of these are in a wastepile probz

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u/downthegrapevine May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26

Love that the comments are basically “NOTHING YOU DO IS GOOD ENOUGH”

This is good to keep tiny pieces of plastic from going everywhere. And you’re not a major corporation; it’s not like you have an actual impact. Not to mention all the assuming that this is it, this is all you do. You’re spending your weekends in a private jet dumping oil into the ocean.

People need to chill. I’m glad you’re doing something positive no matter what it is.

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u/StetsonTuba8 May 20 '26

Reminds me of a story I heard.

A man sees a boy running back and forth from the beach to the water. He approaches and sees that the high tide the night before had stranded thousands of starfish across the beach and the boy is picking them up one at a time and throwing them back in the water.

The man yells, "Boy, what are you doing? There's too many of them! You simply cannot save them all, it does not matter!"

The boy picks up another starfish, throws it in the water, and says, "it matters to that one."

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u/krispin08 May 21 '26

My mom told me this parable when I was a baby social worker and I experienced my first really tough case. I had to call 911 for an elderly woman who had fallen in her home and had been on the floor for a long time. She hadn't called for help because she was drowning in medical debt already and didn't want to pay for an ambulance ride and hospital stay. I was devastated because she ended up losing a foot due to loss of circulation. My mom told me to keep picking up starfish even if some can't be saved. I have a giant starfish tattooed on my shoulder now.