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? Do you want plastic with that?
Posted on July 6, 2013 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsDo you want plastic with that? | Exploring life, parenting, and social justice.
It is a disastrous situation many people do not know or want to know about. Plastic waste is a larger problem that global warming, just not as sexy to the media. Plastic waste kills more wildlife now that Global Warming does. The human death toll of plastic waste has not been counted but like 2nd hand smoke is dangerous not only to the smoker, but to the innocent passer by, plastic waste getting into the food chain is real. The human misery toll of having to live amount so much ugly, plastic waste is very high around the world. The chemicals used in plastic manufacturer becoming part of our diet is real. But it is not heavily documented so we prefer to shut our eyes to it.
See www.plasticwastesolutions.com for more on this and some solutions.
See also www.beachpatrol.com.au for an example of people who are volunteering their time to do some thing about this and want to make the world a better place.
We need to stop irresponsible manufacturing, support Extended Producer Responsibility to make those who make the plastic in the first place partially responsible for its correct disposal. A container deposit scheme is an excellent example of this.
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