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? Plastic bans are a good start. But circularity is the solution – Australia
Posted on July 29, 2022 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsPlastic bans are a fundamental step in the right direction, but the word that everyone really needs to start getting familiar with is the term ‘circularity’.
What does this mean?
To put it simply, when a reusable alternative is not possible, we need to ensure single-use products can be turned into something resourceful.
While some claim that single-use plastics can be recycled by blending them into roads or park benches, it is actually downcycling. The problem here is that this won’t allow these materials to be reused several times in a circular manner.
With this in mind, a circular economy using natural or reclaimed materials has been noted time and time again as a viable and scalable solution to our waste crisis. And product stewardship schemes are helping businesses and consumers dispose of waste where curb side rubbish collection is simply not appropriate.
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