December 2011 - Page 2 of 2 - Plastic Waste Solutions
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Plastic Packaging is the Problem
Posted on December 20, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsThere has been a trend to plastic way from cardboard boxes or cardboard containment of goods for shipping purposes. A lot of this is due to cost, not necessarily due to more secure packaging. Cardboard enjoys very high recycling rates...
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What is so great about PLA? (The plastic made from corn)
Posted on December 20, 2011 by DrRossH in BioPlasticsAs posted on a Linked-In discussion group recently. PLA products are made from food. They are compostable ONLY in an industrial composting facility and that is now questionable and certainly NOT IN A HOME COMPOSTER. They are physically weak, cannot be...
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What does ‘biodegradable’ mean?
Posted on December 11, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsAs usual nothing in life is that simple. Biodegradable does not mean compostable. Many materials will biodegrade in a compost facility but many will not. This should be well understood. Most compostable material will NOT biodegrade in a landfill. ...
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Dana Point CA to Consider Ban on Plastic Bags
Posted on December 11, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting RegulationsIn every case we have read of, the banning of plastic bags has been well received. Even in Italy after one year now, 83% of the people would not want to go back to the plastic bag. Ireland dropped their...
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Litter traps for plastic debris installed along Beaches
Posted on December 1, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsThree trial litter traps were installed by PWS along beaches of Port Melbourne. The litter traps cover the outlets of storm water drains that empty on to the beaches. Previously when a large storm event would occur, plastic litter on...
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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?