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? Thailand’s plastic-waste import ban reignites global debate over green-tech inequality
Posted on December 21, 2025 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations, Plastic RecyclingThe below was written by a grade 10 student. If a young student can understand this then grownups should too!
Thailand’s decision to impose a nationwide ban on imported plastic waste has reignited global attention on how waste trade and green-tech supply chains shift environmental burdens from wealthy nations to developing countries.
The ban, announced earlier this year, was implemented after years of rising plastic-waste imports that exceeded Thailand’s processing capacity and triggered local protests over air pollution, contaminated water, and illegal dumping at unregulated facilities.
Officials justified the measure as necessary to protect public health and curb what environmental groups describe as “waste colonialism,” a global system in which high-income nations export hard-to-recycle plastics to countries with weaker environmental safeguards.
Thailand’s situation reflects a recurring pattern across Southeast Asia and parts of Africa.
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