June 2011 - Plastic Waste Solutions
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Cash for Cans Support – Tasmania
Posted on June 20, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsThere is overwhelming support in Tasmania for container deposit legislation, a survey has found. An EMRS poll of 1000 Tasmanians has found 91 per cent agreed with the introduction of such a scheme. Only 6 per cent of respondents were opposed, and...
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Biodegradables do more harm than good in landfills
Posted on June 20, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsLink to Article Reply by Dr RossH While the comments made in the above link are true with respect to biodegradable plastics biodegrading down and releasing methane or CO2 we ought to consider the larger picture. At the present time we are...
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Bag Ban and Recycling Proposals Fail in Oregon
Posted on June 15, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsSALEM, ORE. The legislative effort to ban single-use plastic carryout bags or to set a high standard for recycling of plastic bags in Oregon has failed. Supporters of the bill acknowledged June 10 that they did not have the support to...
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China’s Plastic Bag Ban Makes Slow Progress
Posted on June 13, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsThe Chinese government launched a nationwide ban on non-biodegradable ultra-thin (thinner than 0.025 mm) plastic bags and forbade supermarkets and shops from handing out free carriers from June 1, 2008. Thicker and more durable plastic bags are still being made...
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Toronto’s 5¢ Plastic Bag Fee
Posted on June 13, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsThe gestation period for Toronto’s 5¢ bag fee has finally come to term. Nine months ago, on June 1st, 2009, the city-wide fee came into effect. Even amongst the initiative’s supporters and naysayers, there is still a bit of uncertainty...
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Plastic Bags: They Just Don’t Make Sense
Posted on June 13, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsOK, we’ve all heard it before, how bad they are for the environment, how they are a waste of fossil fuels, how they are ruining the planet. So why is it such a tough nut to crack? Well, as we all...
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Canadian province bans bottled water
Posted on June 10, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsThe Canadian province of Manitoba has banned water bottles from all of its offices to encourage drinking of tap water, winning praise from ecologists. "We believe by taking this step we are leading by example and encouraging Manitobans to move away...
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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?