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Comment on Ten Rivers Contribute Most of the Plastic in the Oceans (2018)parent

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It depends on whether the poorer nation misrepresented what it would do with the trash.

After a few decades of exported plastic trash ending up in the oceans being common knowledge it doesn't matter whether the handling was initially misrepresented. At best it's willful ignorance, but let's not pretend people have been sending plastic trash to China under the assumption that it would be dealt with responsibly.

A poorer nation probably will misrepresent what they do with the trash.

The sellers can't in all honestly claim they didn't know this would be the result.

was there ever any illusion what poorer nations would do with the trash?

This is the "How was I supposed to know the guns I sold would kill people?" defense

Or the "How was I supposed to know the car I sold would be used to run over a crowd of people?" defence

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