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? Inside California’s Plastic Bag War
Posted on October 25, 2016 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting RegulationsHow competing forces are shaping the debate over a statewide plastic bag ban – and what the …
Source: Inside California’s Plastic Bag War
Opposite the APBA is Yes on 67, a coalition of environmental groups, grocers, elected officials and consumer organizations who support the ban. Close to 14 billion plastic bags enter the California environment every year, the coalition says, and less than 2% of the bags are recycled. Municipal recyclers, many of whom are aligned with Yes on 67, claim the bags clog their machines and ruin their equipment. Additionally, the coalition argues that plastic bags clutter landscapes, pollute oceans and pose a deadly threat to wildlife. “Proposition 67 changes the question from paper or plastic to do you need a bag,” says Andy Keller, founder and CEO of California-based ChicoBag Company (asi/44811) and a vocal advocate for plastic bag reductions. “It helps people change habits and automatically reduces consumption.”
Cities and counties that banned plastic bags have reported significant reductions in litter and waste. In the first year of the ban taking effect, San Jose found that creek and river litter decreased by 76%, litter in storm drains reduced by 69%, and park and roadside litter dropped by 59%, according to the city’s transportation and environment committee.
The idea profits of 3 short sighted bag makers are more important than the millions of people in CA and the millions of wildlife there is totally unjustifiable. These 3 companies need to move with new opportunities as they come up not fight legal battles to stay in the past.
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