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? 
Senate Urges Action On “Toxic Tide” Of Marine Plastic – Australia
Posted on April 27, 2016 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations
Climate change may be the hallmark of the Anthropocene, an age where humans are effectively ecosystem-managers, but the growing ubiquity of plastic in natural ecosystems is its closely related cousin. Like carbon emissions, plastics’ production boomed after 1950. In 1964, only 15 million tonnes were produced, but by 2014 that number had jumped to 311 million tonnes.
via Senate Urges Action On “Toxic Tide” Of Marine Plastic – New Matilda.
In a rare show of unity, all sides of politics came together to recommend the government “actively support research into the effects of marine plastic pollution,” and particularly so-called ‘micro-plastics’.
The Senate Inquiry into Marine Plastics also recommended that a national plastic pollution database be set up; a ban on the importation of personal care products containing micro-beads; and support for states and territories in phasing out plastic bags and developing targeted education campaigns.
The tri-partisan report further recommended the issue be placed on the COAG agenda for “urgent consideration,” and a working group of Environment Ministers be established to kickstart dialogue
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