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? How Do Microplastics Affect Soil Species? Pollution Solutions Online
Posted on September 23, 2020 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsSource: How Do Microplastics Affect Soil Species? Pollution Solutions Online
Microplastic pollution may be having a devastating impact on mites, springworms, ringtails and other microscopic organisms which live in soil. Although these tiny creatures are all but invisible to the naked eye, they play a crucial role in processing elements like carbon and nitrogen, as well as breaking down organic matter so that it can be consumed by soil-dwelling bacteria.
In a first-of-its-kind experiment from China, researchers demonstrated that high concentrations of plastic could decimate the populations of these kinds of soil species, thus negatively affecting the fertility of the land. The findings of the study are just one more reason – as if another was needed – for the human race to curb its damaging addiction to plastic and improve disposal habits of the ubiquitous material.
Another good reason t move to biodegradable substitutes for plastics,
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