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? NYC postpones bag fee vote – USA
Posted on April 27, 2016 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting RegulationsThe “Carryout Bag Reduction” bill would require supermarkets and most shops to charge shoppers 5 cents for disposable bags. Bag fees, which have been implemented in other cities including Los Angeles and Washington D.C., are the fairest and most effective way to get customers to bring reusable bags and cut down on the use of plastic, Lander said.
Opponents of the bill include Councilman David Greenfield, D-Brooklyn, who says the fee amounts to a tax, and Councilman James Vacca, D-Bronx, who argues that it disproportionately punishes the poor. But the pockets of resistance to the measure have mostly come from representatives of white, middle-class districts. Lander was able to solidify support for the bill from minority colleagues by cutting the proposed 10-cent fee in half and by adding a provision to have the city distribute some free, reusable bags.
Purchases made with food stamps or Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which serve low-income households, will not be subject to the charge. Bags for restaurant food and pharmacy prescriptions will also continue to be free. Because retailers would keep the 5-cent fees and not have to keep track of them, industry groups including the Food Industry Alliance of New York and the New York Metro Retail Alliance are not fighting the bill.
However, it is opposed by the plastics industry, which represents manufacturers of plastic bags. Foes have hired Bertha Lewis of the Black Institute to fight the legislation.
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