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? At last an end to single-use plastic bags – New Zealand
Posted on October 9, 2017 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting RegulationsCOMMENT: Finally we are joining the rest of the world and starting to reduce plastic bags.
Source: Kerre McIvor: At last an end to single-use plastic bags
Foodstuffs, the company that operates the New World, 4 Square and Pak’nSave brands, launched an initiative last month asking its customers what action should be taken on plastic bags.
And this week, opposition supermarket chain Countdown went one further.
It announced that from the end of 2018, single-use plastic bags would be banned from its Countdown, SuperValue and FreshChoice stores, which would remove 350 million bags from the environment every year.
Although I have the best of intentions, it’s usually only when I get to the checkout that I remember I should have brought a bag with me. I have fancy jute bags and canvas bags in my cupboard but they’re absolutely no use there when it comes time to take my shopping home.
People tell me to leave the bags in the car but you have to bring the groceries inside, which means the bags come inside too – and once they’re in the house, there they stay. I’m sure that when I no longer have an option I’ll remember to take my reusables with me.
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