Paper V. Plastic - First Ever Monthly Debate!

[Liberdon]

Hello everyone and welcome to the first ever monthly debate!

Now, I know what you’re all thinking. Weren’t the debates supposed to start on April 1st? Yes, yes they were. But, to my defense, I offer several lame excuses valid reasons for why I am just now posting the first debate. You can choose to believe whichever one you’d like:

-I was abducted by weird green aliens. At first I thought that they were going to eat me, but they actually turned out to be awesome space pirate aliens!  We went on an intergalactic adventure, stole some alien treasure, blew up a few planets, and made tons of alien enemies. Overall, a very successful outing!
-My April Fools prank is 2 weeks late (and boring). Haha, the debate wasn’t posted on time; joke’s on you!
-I found a time machine in my garage, and after a brief interlude spent getting chummy with the dinosaurs and a few other unexpected crash landings (the Leaning Tower of Pisa wasn’t always leaning…), I finally made it back to the present (or so I thought.). Apparently, time machines are very fickle things, and I ended up returning two weeks later than I had planned.  Oops!
-I took a very, very, very long nap.
-Due to RL commitments and work overload, I forgot that I was even supposed to post a debate until two days ago. Once I remembered, I decided to wait a few days until after I had caught up on all my work before spring break (it starts tomorrow; yay!).

Here are the guidelines that I expect to be followed during the course of the debates:

1. No double or triple posting!  If you need to clarify or amend your post, please either wait for someone else to reply or edit your original post.

If you choose to edit your post, please bold what you have added and cross out what you have deleted.

For example, suppose I said “I love cats.” If I wanted to change that to “I love dogs,” I would change it to say “I love cats dogs.”

2. Be mindful and respectful of others’ opinions. I ask that you follow standard XKI policy. I recognize that these are debates, and naturally, disagreements will arise. All that I ask is that you respectfully disagree with people and only attack their ideas, not them personally.

3. Have fun! These debates are meant to be a new way for people to exchange ideas and participate in XKI; they are not meant to be stressful or boring. They may be more serious than my regular polls, but you should still enjoy participating!

I will act as moderator of the debates, checking in every day or so to ensure that all the guidelines are being followed. In the event that a debater breaks a guideline as a first time offender, they will be issued a stern warning. If a guideline is broken for a second time, the debater will be barred from participating in the rest of the current debate and the next one. If a guideline is broken for a third time, the debater will be barred from all present and future debates and, depending on the severity of their infractions, may receive further discipline by higher authorities. After 3 months have passed, if the debater wishes to appeal to have their debate ban lifted, they may contact Liberdon .

If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, send me a TG or PM and we’ll chat!

Without further adieu, April’s debate will be on…exciting drumroll please…paper vs plastic!

Ooh, what a fun topic! I’m sure at least one of you has an opinion on this front. To kick off the debate, I’ll ask some starter questions:

Which is better: paper or plastic? Are there situations where one is preferable to the other? What is the most important factor in choosing which to use: economy or the environment?  Are there any other alternatives?

I look forward to seeing what all of you think!

[Jabberwocky]

Whether paper or plastic depends upon the application. For example, I favor paper books, but plastic is fine for a toothbrush. Imagine paper fittings and bushings on your cruise ship or airplane. If we rely upon plastic, our landfills overflow. If we use paper, trees die in its service. Plastic might be more easily recycled, but it isn't often profitable to do so. Truly, the horns of a dilemma.

[Donnee]

Generally this issue is often seen from the prospective of usage by grocery and other retail stores. My wife and I have for years re-used plastic bags (obtained for free) to dispose of other recyclables. So I prefer plastics because of the added use we make of them. From a more global prospective, however, my answer would likely be “Neither of the Above”, in hopes of someday finding better and cost-effective alternatives.

[Jabberwocky]

What we need is a biodegradable alternative to both paper and plastic.
Nanotechnology: something that eats plastic. But how do you restrict it to just trash?

[Liberdon]

All great points so far. Here’s a new question to keep things going: Assuming we do find a way to quickly degrade plastics, have you considered other possible side effects such as microplastics?