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? Mass. bill would require compostable plastic bags
Posted on July 22, 2012 by DrRossH in BioPlastics, Plastic Waste NewsPlastics News – Mass. bill would require compostable plastic bags.
While it is good that petroleum based bags are to be banned as they are a huge blight on our waste management problems, how do these law makers think that people are going to dispose of compostable bags. It seemed like they only listened to a lobbyist from the compostable industry.
Do the law makers know that;
1) Compostable bags do not biodegrade in a landfill as it is not hot enough?
2) there is almost no infrastructure around that allows a compostable plastic to be sent to a commercial compost facility?
3) there are very few commercial compost facilities around?
4) people will not drive many miles in their car to drop their compostable bags off even if there were commercial compost facilities available?
They should have considered bags made from an additive that allows bags to biodegrade in landfills. Since almost 97% of plastic bags go to landfills then that is where the target biodegradation should be aimed at. What are they thinking in mandating compostable bags? It does little for their states problems on this issue.
Discussion · No Comments
There are no responses to "Mass. bill would require compostable plastic bags". Comments are closed for this post.Oops! Sorry, comments are closed at this time. Please try again later.