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? Recyclers address concerns over shrink labels
Posted on July 28, 2012 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsPlastics News – Recyclers address concerns over shrink labels.
This is another example of manufactures making products without a care for their disposal. Whatever design helps their profits is the best design they believe. These kind of choices were made back in the 70-80’s where we thought there were unlimited resources available, plastic was used in smaller quantities and trash disposal was not a big concern. But those days are gone and many of these earlier decisions now have to be redone to bring today’s products more in line with the issues we are now seeing. That means manufacturers have to change their designs and their way of thinking to product products that do meet the requirements of today. Until they realise that or get legislated with ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’, to do that, they won’t voluntarily change their ways as making changes that will eat into their profits short term, and so they will keep on adding to today’s problems.
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