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? Call for Government to hold ‘urgent’ plastic recycling debate – UK
Posted on July 21, 2012 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsMost people (including politicians) know plastic waste is a problem. Few people (including politicians) know how bad of a problem. This is why there is little done about it. Most people say I know this is plastic but I won’t change my buying habits or my disposal to rubbish habits. Or politicians think ‘this is not on anyone’s radar so I won’t mess with the issue’. If we could get extended producer responsibility introduced and follow it with incentives to get the public to recycle their plastic waste instead of trashing it, then we will be well on the road to a sustainable track. This is going to take a lot of leadership from the government. Industry will not change unless forced to do so. The public will not change unless they are given incentives to. Peer organisations can educate the politicians and put pressure on them to change. But they lack the funds to compete with big business who lobby for their plans and sway politicians in their favour.
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