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? Biden endorses ‘ambitious’ plastics agenda, reductions in virgin production -USA
Posted on July 26, 2024 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations, Plastic Recycling
An 83-page report from the Biden administration is the most detailed federal government policy statement yet on addressing plastics in the environment.
Source: Biden endorses ‘ambitious’ plastics agenda, reductions in virgin production | Plastics News
The report also highlighted environmental justice concerns.
“Safe and affordable alternatives to plastic are not always accessible,” the report said. “At the same time, many communities are overburdened by the pollution created from plastic production and disposal.”
The report also linked concerns about microplastics and chemicals in plastics to Biden administration efforts to reduce cancer deaths.
It noted that more than 90 percent of plastics come from fossil fuels and said under business-as-usual growth scenarios for plastics, resin production could account for 15-30 percent of the global carbon budget by 2050, undermining efforts to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5 C.
Plastics groups said the Biden announcement does not acknowledge the environmental impact of other materials.
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