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? Report puts cost of ocean plastic cleanup at $5 billion
Posted on October 5, 2015 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations, Plastic Waste NewsThat there are literally tons of plastic in the world’s oceans is hardly new information, especially to the plastics industry. But now there is finally an in-depth examination of where it originates and how it ends up in the water — and an actionable plan to stop the flow of plastic trash into the oceans by 2035.
Glad to see there is some serious talk about this problem. This a problem we all have, whether we live on the ocean edge or far inland. There are a number of products that need to be banned (or charged for which essentially leads to the same result of a drastic reduction in their use). Getting plastic bags out of the consumers hand would be a great start for that one very problematic item.
It is somewhat ironic that Coke is having a say in this when the bottles they make are one of the most littered plastic items and they know it. A simple step by Coke to support a container deposit scheme would reduce their littered bottles by approx 400%. Why don’t they support this if they are being involved in the problem above. They expect every one else to pay for the litter clean up of their products is why. They want councils and volunteer groups to foot the bill to clean them up. Studies from states side by side show that with the imposition of a CDS that the amount of product consumed is no different, so why do companies like Coke spend large amounts of money fight something that will benefit the whole world?
We need these companies who make disposable plastic items to become responsible for their products.
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