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? Summertime – Beaches, Ocean And Trash – USA
Posted on August 26, 2015 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting RegulationsBlair Horner: Summertime – Beaches, Ocean And Trash | WAMC.
Better yet, the nation should curb plastic use altogether. The average American throws out 185 pounds of plastic every year. Cutting plastic bag use can dramatically reduce waste. After San Jose, California banned plastic bags in 2012, plastic bag litter dropped by almost 90 percent; it fell by 60 per¬cent in creeks and rivers.
And San Jose is not alone: San Francisco passed a ban in 2007. A similar law took effect across California this summer. In addition to California, a de facto statewide ban exists in Hawaii as all of the most populous counties in the state prohibit non-biodegradable plastic bags at checkout, as well as paper bags containing less than 40 percent recycled material. Other states, including Delaware, Maine, and North Carolina have also passed laws governing plastic bags.
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