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? Oxo degradeable plastics should be banned – Europe
Posted on November 14, 2017 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting RegulationsBacked by some of the world’s leading brand names and recycling companies, including Nestlé, L’Oréal and Veolia, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF, Cowes / UK; www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org) said that by its nature, oxo-degradable plastics are not suited for long-term reuse, recycling at scale or composting, and do not allow materials and products to be kept in high-value use.
In its call for the material to be banned, the foundation said that packaging made from oxo-degradable plastics is not a solution to soil and marine pollution, and it actually contributes to microplastic pollution and poses an environmental risk. It also notes that marketing oxo-degradable plastics as a solution to littering, by claiming they are degradable, could confuse consumers and “may actually incentivise littering.” Such plastics fragment into smaller pieces, including microplastics, and while invisible to the naked eye, this fragmentation is different from biodegradation, it added. The foundation also took aim at plastic packaging that contains “similar chemical additives … for which claims of accelerated biodegradation are made,” including enzyme-mediated degradable plastics.
Trade groups have long highlighted the problems of oxo-degradable and oxo-biodegradable plastics getting into the recycling scheme. Last year, the British Plastics Federation (BPF, London / UK; www.bpf.co.uk) warned that it was very important to understand that the quality of recyclate was a top priority for recyclers “and even the perception that these materials could find their way into the recycling stream could undermine the reputation and integrity of this sector” – see Plasteurope.com of 15.08.2016
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