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? 
UN agrees to end plastic pollution –
Posted on March 9, 2022 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting RegulationsSource: UN agrees to end plastic pollution – Waste Management Review
Australia has joined with other nations to adopt a legally binding agreement to address plastic pollution and stop it from entering our oceans.
More than 170 Heads of State and Ministers for the Environment from across the globe came together at the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, making a historic agreement to end plastic pollution.
“Australia has set the standard for how it deals with waste plastics, investing towards a circular economy and through our ban on the export of unprocessed waste plastic,” Environment Minister Sussan Ley said.
“Fourteen million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans every year, leaching harmful chemicals and breaking down into microplastics that are ingested by marine life.
“The move by member nations to adopt a legally binding agreement is the start of a global push to tackle this problem but we know there is more to do. Our oceans are part of our national identity and critical to the daily lives of millions of Australians – ensuring our shared oceans are clean and healthy is both a national and regional responsibility for Australia.”
The resolution, based on three initial draft resolutions from various nations, establishes an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), which will begin its work in 2022, with the ambition of completing a draft global legally binding agreement by the end of 2024. It is expected to present a legally binding instrument, which would reflect diverse alternatives to address the full lifecycle of plastics, the design of reusable and recyclable products and materials, and the need for enhanced international collaboration to facilitate access to technology, capacity building and scientific and technical cooperation.
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