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? 
Curb ‘devastating’ plastic waste, MPs say
Posted on January 6, 2018 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations
MPs want deposits on plastic bottles and a higher levy on packaging to protect the seas from pollution.
Source: Curb ‘devastating’ plastic waste, MPs say
EAC Chair Mary Creagh MP said: “Urgent action is needed to protect our environment from the devastating effects of marine plastic pollution which, if it continues to rise at current rates, will outweigh fish by 2050.”
She added that the current levy on plastics producers only raised a fraction of the cost of dealing with plastic waste.
“Packaging producers don’t currently have to bear the full financial burden of recycling their packaging,” she said.
“By reforming charges, the government can ensure that producers and retailers will have financial incentives to design packaging that is easily recyclable – or face higher compliance costs.”
The committee also proposes a minimum 50% recycled plastic content in plastic bottles to stimulate the recycled plastics market.
This would be great if the UK could do this and show leadership to the rest of the world.
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