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? EU backs ban on plastic straws, balloon sticks
Posted on November 5, 2018 by DrRossH in Plastic StrawsBRUSSELS: EU countries on Wednesday backed the outlawing of certain single-use plastics, bringing the bloc a step closer to an outright ban on the products which account for huge quantities of waste in the world’s oceans.
Source: EU backs ban on plastic straws, balloon sticks
While the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, has suggested that clean-up costs should be paid by plastic producers, the council wants to see companies which import and sell the products pay a share as well.
The council also called for national targets to cut the consumption of single-use plastics where there is currently no environmentally-friendly alternative.
The commission has said single-use plastics account for some 70 percent of the waste in the oceans and beaches, and research last week appeared to show for the first time the widespread presence of plastics in the human food chain.
The manufacturers need to be held partially responsible, that is a must. But the importers and sellers need to be held to the same as the are all responsible for the items getting loose into the environment. As is the final consumer user.
Discussion · No Comments
There are no responses to "EU backs ban on plastic straws, balloon sticks". Comments are closed for this post.Oops! Sorry, comments are closed at this time. Please try again later.