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? Draft of US plastics strategy focuses on health impacts, microplastics and recycling – USA
Posted on April 28, 2023 by DrRossH in Plastic Recycling, Plastic Waste News, Switching Away from PlasticThe Environmental Protection Agency April 21 released a draft national plastics strategy that includes a focus on the health impacts of plastics production and microplastics, as well as looking at ways to improve recycling and waste management.
“Plastic pollution negatively impacts our environment and public health with underserved and overburdened communities hit hardest,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan, in a statement where the agency noted that both plastics production and plastics waste have more than doubled in the last 20 years.
“Plastics emits pollution at every stage of its life cycle, from extraction of raw materials, to manufacturing of plastics, to pollution from post-consumer products,” said Jonathan Black, senior director of chemical safety and plastic pollution in the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “We must address pollution from every stage.”
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