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? 
The problem with an outright ban on plastic straws
Posted on April 26, 2018 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting Regulations
Plastic straws are an environmental menace, but the push to ban this simple product could have unintended consequences for people with disabilities who rely on them.
Source: The problem with an outright ban on plastic straws
“Disabled people who have no alternatives should be exempt from bans. Public places should have plastic straws — and other plastic products like cutlery — available on request only for those for whom it is an essential need, not a luxury.”
And UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced this week that she planned to ban the commercial use of disposable plastic products such as cotton buds, drink stirrers and plastic straws in response to rising fears regarding plastic marine pollution. She urged other Commonwealth leaders — including Australia — to follow suit.
Mrs May claimed that single-use items such as plastic straws are “one of the greatest environmental challenges facing the world” in a meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has not committed to any type of commercial ban of single-use plastic products such as straws.
Exempting disabled people from bans would still probably eliminate 99.9% of single use disposable plastic items.
Australia is so far behind it is simply inexcusable for this government to act like this. We can’t sacrifice our future Australia for a few of the governments ‘friends’.
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