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? UK beach litter rises by a third, report finds
Posted on March 27, 2016 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting RegulationsThousands of plastic bottles clogging up seaside locations, along with cans, glass and crisp packets, with 3,298 pieces picked up for every kilometre cleaned
via UK beach litter rises by a third, report finds.
Plastic bottles on beaches rose by 57.2% in England, 21.3% in Scotland, 6.3% in the Channel Islands and a whopping 235.3% in Northern Ireland. In Wales they dropped by 39.4 % but in line with the overall fall in the country’s litter levels. In Wales there were still 103 plastic bottles found per kilometre cleaned – higher than the national average.
The MSC said deposit return schemes – in use in other parts of the world – give value to items often regarded by consumers as having no value and disposed of irresponsibly.
UK needs a cash for containers scheme quite badly too just like in Australia. The benefits of such a scheme are substantial. Including more jobs, financial benefits to schools and many civic groups, huge improvement to the environment and less plastic litter to get into the oceans. In Australia the bottling companies spend $millions to fight against such a scheme. Why? They too would make $millions from such a scheme from the left over unredeemed deposits. Their behaviour is appalling and very irresponsible, they are quite happy to keep polluting the world and need to be stopped.
Here in Melbourne our survey shows we are getting approx. 20 items of plastic per meter on one beach that BeachPatrol Australia surveys. That is 20,000 per km. Mostly plastic film, then food wrappers, then plastic bags then balloon remnants.
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