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? Brand owners debate extended producer responsibility
Posted on November 10, 2012 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsPlastics News – Brand owners debate extended producer responsibility.
A sensible EPR is really the only way that will lead to tangible results on recycling of plastic waste. Until that happens we will be continuously surrounded by industry groups saying we are doing ok and recycling is on the rise. Increasing recycling by 0.2% a year is not a good result. We can do far better than that.
Landfilling $11 billion of resources every year is not doing OK. We can do better than that.
Industry will not voluntarily go there themselves, as it costs money to change direction, eve if to a better direction. It is easier to keep you head in the sand and do the same old thing every day. So they need a good push and once on the better path they will see their costs are no more or even less than they are now.
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