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? 
The oceans are full of plastic – here’s what we can do about it – Australia
Posted on September 18, 2014 by DrRossH in Plastic & Wildlife, Plastic Waste News
The oceans are full of our plastic – here’s what we can do about it.
The more this huge problem gets publicity and the sooner it gets enough exposure to through to the public the better chance we’ll have of making this problem not get any worse.
We probably cannot now make it get any better as the plastic fragments are dispersed over huge distances and broken down into small pieces that now no one could afford to go collect them. But preventing it from getting any worse is paramount. On Lord Hose Island, 100% of the Shearwater birds have -plastic in their stomachs now.
Eliminating the basic and unnecessary consumer items will go a long way to solve this problem. Plastic bags, plastic bottles, cutlery, plates, plastic toothbrushes, almost all air line containers can be done with out and the suppliers can use paper or cardboard in their place.
It is time for manufacturers to act responsible and for consumers to think before they reach for that next plastic throw away item.
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