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? Recycling Targets to Drive Recycling Revolution for UK
Posted on March 10, 2012 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsRecycling Targets to Drive Recycling Revolution for UK – Waste Mangagement World.
The UK realising more and more that plastic packaging waste is a majour source of plastic waste and it needs to be recovered for recycling to save on new resources and to use less energy.
There could be some simple restraints put on the manufacturing industry that would still allow them to package their food as they prefer, but would ensure that recovery and recycling efficiency became very high.
1) If they all used the same material, clear or coloured HDPE which is easily recycled. A the moment there are a number of different plastics being used by different manufacturers for the exact same job. Some are recyclable and some are not. Why? Make it all the same material and an easy one to recycle.
2) If they preloaded the plastic with a landfill-biodegradable additive, then the plastic can be recycled as normal, but for those that do go to a landfill, they will biodegrade away in a few years, not linger for 100’s of years as they do now. This just costs a cent or two more than now per plastic container. i.e. insignificant cost but substantial environmental benefit.
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