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? 
Defra UK debates ways to improve Pack Regulations
Posted on April 27, 2012 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste News
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is one of the key elements that needs to happen to control this waste of resources we are currently doing and this pile of plastic waste that is accumulating year after year. Plastic is not biodegradable, and we make 100’s of millions of tons of it every year. With only a small fraction recycled, the obvious result is plastic waste accumulation and all that is associated with that. Plastic litter, plastic in the oceans, plastic toxicity and landfills no being able to function properly with its matter contained in 1000’s of individual non biodegradable plastic bags, preventing it from fully biodegrading.
EPR is one of the main factors that will lead to significantly higher amounts of recycling of plastic waste and less production of trivial disposable plastic packaging.
Responsible conssumer behaviour is the other main factor.
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