I didn't suggest our rivers were clean because we export it, but we should definitely consider the waste we export to still be our own regardless of where it ends up.
The rivers in less privileged states would be dirty in any case, yes, for the reasons I've listed above.
I didn't use the word "blame" except to say that we shouldn't be blaming others for issues we created (the wealth disparaties, the petro-chemical industry, global consumer culture etc). Blame is neither here nor there, it's a matter of responsibility.
> I didn't suggest our rivers were clean because we export it
The combination of "Developed countries generate an order of magnitude more waste per capita. It seems unfair to blame poorer countries." and "We send it to other countries, have them dump it for us" sounds like it to me. Plus the sibling comment of "We instead ship it to poorer countries for them to put it in their rivers."
And yes I know you only made one of those. So with you not intending that meaning, then I guess you can ignore my comments, they weren't at you.
But I still want to counter the other users' implications and statements. The blame and responsibility we have in uncontained plastic is generally unrelated to the quantity we produce.
> Blame is neither here nor there, it's a matter of responsibility.
In this conversation they're the same to me, you can pretend I said the word responsibility instead.
The rivers in less privileged states would be dirty in any case, yes, for the reasons I've listed above.
I didn't use the word "blame" except to say that we shouldn't be blaming others for issues we created (the wealth disparaties, the petro-chemical industry, global consumer culture etc). Blame is neither here nor there, it's a matter of responsibility.