Not necessarily. At times, a tiny band-aid on things can be counterproductive. See replacing plastic straws with paper/reusable ones; it's a drop in the bucket, and it's used in part to distract from the much larger overall issue of single-use plastics.
I don't see any evidence that the push against plastic straws is used to distract from other single use plastics.
Indeed, I see the opposite. I see advocacy groups that are fighting against single use plastics using anti plastic straws campaigns as a way to spark conversations about other kinds of single use plastics.
I don't see how paper straws distract from anything. Every time I see a paper straw my immediate thoughts are about how it's not plastic that'll be getting thrown out.
> At face value, these efforts seem benevolent, but they obscure the real problem, which is the role that corporate polluters play in the plastic problem. This clever misdirection has led journalist and author Heather Rogers to describe Keep America Beautiful as the first corporate greenwashing front, as it has helped shift the public focus to consumer recycling behavior and actively thwarted legislation that would increase extended producer responsibility for waste management.
> For example, back in 1953, Vermont passed a piece of legislation called the Beverage Container Law, which outlawed the sale of beverages in non-refillable containers. Single-use packaging was just being developed, and manufacturers were excited about the much higher profit margins associated with selling containers along with their products, rather than having to be in charge of recycling or cleaning and reusing them. Keep America Beautiful was founded that year and began working to thwart such legislation. Vermont lawmakers allowed the measure to lapse after four years, and the single-use container industry expanded, unfettered, for almost 20 years.
No, there are some companies actually trying to create "greener" cements and concrete formulations. We can absolutely split hairs about it, but some are significantly better than conventional and are in the pipeline for use. However, still years away due to regulation testing and standards adoption.
