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? 
Rising plastic menace choking sealife
Posted on July 12, 2012 by DrRossH in Plastic & Wildlifehttp://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/09/3540635.htm#artBookmarks
Is the value we get from a plastic straw or a plastic bag or similar worth this price?
Many many islands have beaches that look like his beach
“It’s very sad and disturbing to see so much plastic being ingested by these birds,” says Avery-Gomm.
“The birds usually have dozens of pieces of plastic in their stomachs, things like candy wrappers, twine and Styrofoam, causing lacerations of the stomach lining, stunted growth and mortality.”
The researchers performed necropsies on 67 birds, finding each contained an average of 0.385 grams of plastic, equivalent to about five per cent of their body mass.
“I was shocked to find one bird with 454 pieces of plastic in her stomach,” says Avery-Gomm.
Scientists are also concerned about the toxins leaching out of the plastics, which are also being consumed by the birds and other marine life.
“I think it’s time for governments to look at legislation to ban single-use plastics like straws and wrappers,” Avery-Gomm says.
Australian birds affected
Dr Jennifer Lavers from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic studies at the University of Tasmania says the new Canadian findings reflect her own research on Australian seabirds.
Fifteen years ago, 65 per cent of Australian marine birds were affected by plastics, and Lavers believes it could be closer to 85 per cent now.
Her research on short-tailed and flesh-footed shearwaters has found that one hundred per cent of the birds now suffer from ingested plastics.
“Unfortunately it’s bad for both species,” says Lavers. “All the birds suffer things like perforations and blockages of the digestive system, or ingested toxins leaching from the plastics.”
“Last week, I removed 442 pieces of plastic from an albatross chick only a few months old.”
Bigger problem
Lavers says the problem of plastic pollution is also impacting on many other marine animals. All seven species of Australian sea turtles are known to ingest and become entangled in plastics.
“Last year, a sperm whale washed up with 123 different kinds of fishing net in its stomach,” Lavers says. “It’s all very terrifying and exceptionally bad news all around.”
“Governments should have legislated to ban plastic bags or impose fees decades ago. Now there’s millions of tonnes of plastics polluting the marine environment.”
“Urgent legislation and international co-operation is what’s needed now,” says Lavers.
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