How many people today grab a takeaway coffee cup from the local cafe to drink on the go? We don’t know, but the number must be enormous.. Most every one of the above have a plastic top that will last 100s of years. Some cafes still use plastic cups that last a similar time. Is 10 minutes of coffee worth 100s of years of trash?
These items can be seen littering our gutters and on our streets all over the place. If they were all cardboard, they would still be littered, but they would, at least, be gone in a short time.
They do not need to be made of plastic.
On the way home from the gym last week, a distance of about 1 km (1/2 mile), I counted the items of plastic litter on the curb as I walked. In that short distance I counted 63 pieces of plastic litter. Plastic drink bottles, bottle tops, candy wrappers, plastic film, polystyrene fragments etc. That seemed to be a lot to me. I guess it is a generational thing. Our parents would have been horrified to see that amount, whereas it seems to go unnoticed by our youth of today. In another 20 years how many pieces will there be on this stretch, -- 200? What will today’s youth think of that new amount then when they are older? Will their children be so readily accepting of a higher amount of litter? Are compostable plastics the best option? – Australia
Posted on September 15, 2023 by DrRossH in Landfills and DisposalCompostable plastics are becoming more common and can appear to be an intuitive solution to plastic pollution but are they the best option?
Source: Are compostable plastics the best option?
COMPOSTABLE PLASTICS CAN NOT BE RECYCLED WITH OTHER PLASTICS
Due to their different composition, compostable plastics cannot be recycled in with other plastics. Their materials have different properties and would contaminate other conventional plastics if they were mixed together. Unfortunately, compostables often well-meaningly find their way into recycling streams, contaminating full batches of recycling and condemning them to landfill.
COMPOSTABLE PLASTICS ARE BAD NEWS IN THE ENVIRONMENT
Sadly, a turtle can choke just as easily on a littered compostable plastic bag as a conventional plastic bag.
COMPOSTABLE PLASTICS AND THE CIRCULAR ECOCOMY
The move to a circular economy is about eliminating waste and pollution, and that includes greenhouse gas emissions. A circular economy aims to keep materials in the productive economy and decrease the need for new materials. Any time a compostable plastic item is used once – no matter how it is disposed of – it is still a single-use plastic.
Where possible, we should be choosing products and packaging that can be reused, which will mean less single-use packaging being manufactured and less waste going to landfill or litter.
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