How much would it cost to switch to plastic alternatives? Richard Gray crunches the numbers.
Walking along a short section of stony beach, Claire Waluda stoops briefly to pick up something from between the rocks. It is a brightly coloured plastic bottle top – just one of hundreds of bits of plastic that she finds washed ashore on the remote, windswept island of South Georgia.
Located in the south Atlantic, on the fringes of the Antarctic, it is nearly 1,000 miles (1,500km) from the nearest major human settlement. Yet even here Waluda, an ecologist with the British Antarctic Survey, is finding worrying signs of our throw-away attitude towards plastic. Regularly she finds seals entangled in this debris or albatross chicks coughing up bits of plastic film.
These are just a few examples of the damage our throw-away relationship with plastics is inflicting on the environment. More than 78 million tonnes of plastic packaging is produced worldwide every year by an industry worth nearly $198 billion. Just a fraction of that is recycled while the vast majority is thrown away. Plastic litter now clutters every part of our planet, from remote parts ofthe Antarctic to the deepest ocean trenches.
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Who cares what the cost is, we wither need biodegradable plastic, that degrades well before 50 years, or we need other materials that are plant based organic...
ReplyDeleteThis should be required reading for everyone!
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this.
Use plastics to build homeless shelters. Melt the plastic and mix it concrete, dirt, wood or something. Build a strong little homes with plastic. Artists, create art work. Do something for the environment.
ReplyDeleteGot rid of paper because of killing all the trees,it was the perfect biodegradable product,also I won't drink milk out of the recycled plastic jugs smells like garbage.
ReplyDelete