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? Statement From American Progressive Bag Alliance Regarding Plastic Bag And Film Recycling Act
Posted on April 27, 2012 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsThe same old tired story, you can ban plastic bags as it will hurt jobs of the poor works family. It is like a stuck record. This argument comes out every time an issue like this raised. So;
Are we to assume that the jobs of a few workers are more important the polluting the environment and killing wildlife often via a horrible death?
Are we to assume that those workers can never get any other type of job other than to make plastic bags? Have they thought about making reusable or cloth bags instead of plastic bags?
Plus and here is the real irony to their argument. These business owners are saying they have to make all these bags every day to keep these workers employed? Yet they are telling the government that we need to look at more recycle programs rather than bag bans. If we recycled bags we would not need those disposable bags in those large wasteful quantities and some of the workers will be out of a job anyway. They know that not much change will happen and they will continue to make all these bags. Already it is 2012 and we are still having the same old discussion we had 5 years ago, 10 years ago? Recycling of bags now is about 1%. If the government waits another 10 years to give industry a chance to run their stewardship program and we find recycling has gotten to 5% are we really any better off? Of course not, all that has happened is that business has gotten away with it’s ‘business as usual’ manner and we are all the worse off, all for a few $ in some business owners pockets.
We have to think bigger than this petty save a few jobs argument. Business manufacturers, especially manufacturers of disposable items, have to start to think about Extended Producer Responsibility of the products they make.
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