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? McDonald’s using compostable plastics at the London Olympics
Posted on July 28, 2012 by DrRossH in BioPlastics, Plastic Waste NewsPlastics News – McDonald’s using compostable plastics at the London Olympics.
It is nice to say they use compostable plastic, but how are they getting the waste products from their customers back out of trash cans and sent to a commercial composting facility?
1) Do they even have facilities to send the compostable materials too?
2) Almost all consumers will dump their waste in trash bins.
3) Are McDonalds going to go through the trash bins to pull out the compostable plastic waste?
We see Green Washing spin on all this by McDonalds to dupe customers into thinking something good is happening, when little real consequence is happening.
S Patchett says:
Post Author August 21, 2012 at 12:25 pmThe infrastructure is all in place. LOCOG have ensured that not just McDonalds but all the food suppliers and Hospitality suppliers within the closed Olympic sites are using Compostable or recyclable plastics where possible. There is a range of colored bins in place all around the parks and the products bought by the public will have labels to match the bin that the waste should go into. All the waste from the Olympic sites is being sent to one central sorting center, where the waste will be separated and either recycled, composted or burnt to generate heat. Nothing will go to landfill.
This isn’t just an example of McDonalds trying to win Browny points by using Green wash, this is a fully structured and controlled program put in place by LOCOG for the whole of the Olympic & Paralympic games and should be applauded.
Kosar says:
Post Author September 3, 2012 at 7:02 amI really want to let some pirase for your efforts with making everyone think down environmental friendly avenue. I work with an insulating company, and we use all green products. One of the things I notice the most with my work is how many times people will leave the door open for longer than necessary. Most houses are negatively pressured against the outside. Every second we leave a door open, 50 Pascals (which is equivelent to 50 basketballs) of outside air come into our house. That’s a lot! Another place is if you have a guest room or laundry room that only gets used on one day a week, close the door, shut off the vents in that room. No sense in heating the entire house if you aren’t living in the entire house. Sorry to go all contractor lippy on you My recent post