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IBM Granted "Paper-or-Plastic?" Patent
theodp writes "On Tuesday, IBM was granted US Patent No. 7,407,089 for storing a preference for paper or plastic grocery bags on customer cards and displaying a picture of said preference after a card is scanned. The invention, Big Blue explains, eliminates the 'unnecessary inconvenience for both the customer and the cashier' that results when 'Paper or Plastic?' must be asked. The patent claims also cover affixing a cute sticker of a paper or plastic bag to a customer card to indicate packaging preferences. So does this pass the 'significant technical content' test, IBM'ers?"
thats a good point but could you have made it without swearing in your subject line? how rude!
The really amazing thing is that Australians have such a huge oil surplus they're letting perfectly fine fuel rot away in a dump.
We do separate our trash for recycling, and have been doing this for years now. Plastic and glass bottles, aluminum can, carton, newspapers, magazines, etc. We have been separating them into stacks and putting them into different bins for years now. We have been trying to avoid preserved food so that we don't waste resources in those containers.
Besides, China is a crowded place. We don't live in oversized mansion like the USians, with a huge back yard, where we can have huge compost containers to convert organic trash into fertilizer. And we are city dwellers, what do I want to do with the fertilizer anyway?
And I don't think we would like to hand separate those organic trash either. So, even though we produce very minimum trash, but yes, decent garbage bags to keep those flies and smells out are necessary for modern way of city living.