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? Disposable plasticware replacing biodegradable natural alternatives
Posted on January 20, 2012 by DrRossH in GeneralThis is going to be an environmental disaster for those regions. More of the not so good exports from the West to the third world. There are a number of biodegradable plastic options that could be used to prevent this from happening. The best and simplest would be the use of a landfill biodegradable additive added to the plastic at the time of plate or spoon production. Then when these items are discarded, they will biodegrade away in a few years. It does cost a few cents more to add this landfill-biodegradable additive into the plastic, but the benefits on the reduction of plastic waste afterwards are enormous. Full Story
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