November 2011 - Plastic Waste Solutions
-

Plastic bag ban in Wales
Posted on November 29, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsAnecdotal evidence from major retailers suggests that Wales’ carrier bag charge has dramatically reduced bag use in Wales, according to environment minister John Griffiths. The carrier bag charge came into force on 1 October in Wales. As a result of the...
Continue reading this entry → -
Drink bottles to be recycled at Olympics
Posted on November 29, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsCoca-Cola has pledged to recycle all clear plastic bottles disposed of at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The company will be joining forces with Sita UK, the Games organising committee’s waste management partner, to recycle clear plastic PET...
Continue reading this entry → -
Call for industry to do more to reduce pack waste
Posted on November 28, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsSpeaking at a Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum on ‘Moving towards a zero waste economy’ (17 November), Thornton stressed that packaging had an important role to play in protecting products. However, he added that packaging “was also inherent waste”. He explained:...
Continue reading this entry → -

A lightweight plastic bottle is still a plastic bottle
Posted on November 28, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsNestlé is set to launch what it claims will be the UK’s lightest-weight water bottles after a £35m investment in a new bottling plant in Buxton. Full Story A water bottle by any name is still a water...
Continue reading this entry → -
PET bottles to feature in BBC food programme
Posted on November 28, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsThe BBC’s The Foods That Make Billions: Liquid Gold is due to focus on the growth of bottled water and will examine the role that PET bottles have played in the multi-billion pound industry. Full Story The plastic water...
Continue reading this entry → -
Defining the term Bioegradable
Posted on November 13, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsAs much as the USA FTC get criticised on their definitions and requirements for using the word biodegradable, they do have some good points and it would make discussions a lot more meaningful if people followed these points. If people...
Continue reading this entry →

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?