Tag "Plastic"
Ocean Optimism Alert: We Can Break Our Addiction to Plastic!
The European Commission has implemented a new Plastic Bags Directive guiding national governments to ensure that no more than 40 plastic bags are consumed annually per person by the end of 2025 (currently 100 billion bags are used per year in the EU).
[9] Just like plastic bags, there are other plastic products that we can stop using to reduce our ecological footprint.
[10] That is 182,500,000,000,000 straws per year in the US alone!
To address plastic straw pollution problems, two friends and I decided to stop using plastic straws ourselves and form a campaign to rid our hometown, Cascais, Portugal, of single-use plastic straws.
Ideally, each establishment would stop offering straws, but many of them are not yet ready to completely get rid of straws.
In a world in which there may be more plastic in the ocean than fish in a mere 32 years, refusing to use a plastic straw seems like an easy first step to take.
Little by little, straw by straw, we will help preserve the environment and make our world a better place.
(2017) Breaking bag habits Retrieved May 2018 from https://ec.europa.eu/environment/efe/themes/waste/breaking-bag-habits_en [9] Calderwood, I.
Retrieved May 2018 from https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/plastic-bans-around-the-world/ [10] Parker, L. (2018) Straw Wars: The fight to rid the oceans of discarded plastic.
(2017) The Problem of Plastic Straws (And How Each of Us Can Make a Difference), Plastic Pollution Coalition.
I Need Plastic Straws To Drink. I Also Want To Save The Environment.
People with disabilities want to save the planet.
However, I have continued to use plastic straws at restaurants and other public establishments because drinking is necessary, and plastic straws are what’s available.
Some have suggested providing reusable or compostable straws as the answer.
The first time I ordered a drink, it came without a straw, and I learned the cruise line no longer provides them as part of their efforts to reduce plastic.
This is laudable, but I immediately worried I’d have problems getting straws during my trip, which I need to consume my drinks.
Efforts to develop alternatives to plastic straws should continue as well, but they must include the disability community.
It’s also important to remember that banning plastic straws are only one very small way to reduce plastic and help the environment.
As someone who depends on plastic straws as a means to drink, I believe it’s important to explore alternatives that the disability community can use and afford.
People with disabilities want to save the planet.
Banning plastic straws entirely is not the answer.
Striving To Reduce Ocean Pollution, EU Proposes Ban Of Everyday Plastic Items
Getty Images Alarmed by the sheer quantity of plastic clogging our oceans, the European Union is mulling ambitious new rules that would reduce or outrightly prohibit many everyday single-use plastic items.
Some of these items — like plastic straws, cotton buds, plates and disposable cutlery — will be banned completely under the new rules, which require the approval of the European Parliament and all 28 EU member states.
500,000 tonnes of EU plastic waste end up in the sea every year.
We can only solve this urgent issue together.
Improved waste management of abandoned and lost fishing gear, which accounts for almost 30 percent of Europe’s beach litter, is also mandated in the proposal.
“Single-use plastics are not a smart economic or environmental choice, and today’s proposals will help business and consumers to move towards sustainable alternatives.
We can create sustainable products that the world will demand for decades to come, and extract more economic value from our precious resources.#PlasticsStrategy #PassOnPlastic pic.twitter.com/19mCvxlJOq — European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) May 28, 2018 According to CNN Money, it could take three or four years for the rules to be enforced.
But if they are, the European Commission said the measures are expected have a profound financial and environmental impact.
“Having one set of rules for the whole EU market will create a springboard for European companies to develop economies of scale and be more competitive in the booming global marketplace for sustainable products,” the commission said in a press release.
Plastics Europe, a trade group representing European manufacturers, criticized the proposal, saying in a press release that “plastic product bans are not the solution” and “alternative products may not be more sustainable.”
Recycling Mystery: Plastic Utensils
When it comes to disposable plastic utensils, quit forking around.
Seriously, cut it out if you’re buying something described as “disposable” and looking to recycle it.
But let’s assume for a minute that you have plastic utensils from take-out restaurants, office lunch parties or numerous other scenarios and want to keep them out of landfills.
Some cities are so concerned that consumers will put expanded polystyrene in the recycling bin that they don’t accept #6 plastic in any form.
Other plastic utensils are made of PET (#1 plastic) or polypropylene (#5 plastic), which have a larger recycling market than polystyrene.
Unfortunately, individual utensils won’t be labeled, so you’ll have no way of knowing which resin of plastic you have unless you have the original box (meaning you bought disposable utensils in the first place).
Baling is made much easier for materials that collapse, like aluminum cans, plastic bottles and newspaper.
Just last year, the Foodservice Packaging Institute lobbied the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries to expand MRF-accepted materials to include utensils, and numerous recyclers objected.
In the U.S., our solution for rigid plastic recycling has been to export it to China (whereas plastic bottles and bags are usually recycled domestically).
If domestic recycling markets don’t emerge, even cities currently accepting utensils for recycling will stop accepting them.
Polyester, Nylon Clothes May Be Caught in UK Curbs on Plastics
(Bloomberg) — U.K. Chancellor Philip Hammond is being urged to start taxing clothes made from polyester and nylon as he seeks to stop harmful plastics filling the world’s oceans.
The Treasury is aiming to announce a package of new taxes to deal with plastic waste in its budget statement in November, following a consultation that closed on Friday and attracted more than 100,000 responses, according to a spokeswoman for the department.
No other major economy has tried to deal with the tiny fragments of plastic which shed from clothing and wash up in oceans where they’re eaten by marine animals.
Synthetic microfiber pollution is at least five times more prevalent than plastic microbeads and bags and could be reduced through an instrument similar to the Landfill Tax, according to the Green Alliance, a pressure group.
The 22 year-old tax on materials sent to the dump is arguably the U.K.’s most successful environmental policy, having helped cut waste buried on land by more than 65 percent.
It has also boosted recycling by slowly increasing rates charged to waste companies. “The Treasury wants to get in on this game because they understand that plastic is a big issue and they can see the electoral dynamics,” said Benton.
Along with Greenpeace, Green Alliance also called for taxation on virgin plastics to encourage a greater use of recycled materials.
Remaining products such as single-use coffee cups, should be taxed, it said in its submission.
Crucially, he doesn’t want to see a switch to cottons and wool, which have their own environmental issues and can be prohibitively expensive for many shoppers.
National Geographic’s Clever New Cover Contains Chilling Warning About Plastics
National Geographic warns of the devastating effects that plastics are having on the planet with a clever cover for its June edition.
The cover image shows an iceberg-resembling plastic bag partially submerged in the ocean: The 18 billion pieces of plastic that end up in the ocean each year are “just the tip of the iceberg,” the caption says.
National Geographic’s senior photo editor, Vaughn Wallace, shared the image of the cover — created by Mexican artist Jorge Gamboa — to Twitter on Wednesday.
It’s now going viral, with hundreds of people praising the publication for taking on the important topic in such a thought-provoking way: National Geographic is launching a “Planet or Plastic?” campaign with the new issue, which aims to reduce global reliance on single-use plastics.
As part of the initiative, National Geographic has swapped the magazine’s plastic wrappers in the U.S., United Kingdom and India for paper.
“Will eliminating a plastic magazine wrapper save the planet?
But it’s an example of the kind of relatively easy action that every company, every government, and every person can take,” wrote editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg.
“And when you put it together, that adds up to real change,” she added.
In February, a sperm whale was discovered dead off the coast of southeast Spain with 64 pounds of plastic trash inside its digestive system.
Researchers predict that by 2025, up to 38 millions bits of plastic waste could annually enter oceans unless radical action is taken.
Study: Microplastics Common in Bottled Water
For most of us, plastic is not a welcome dietary supplement.
What the Research Found According to a recent study at the State University of New York, tiny pieces of plastic, or microplastics, are present in most of the bottled water on the market.
Researchers analyzed 259 bottles of water from 11 different brands and nine countries, finding tiny pieces of plastic in more than 90 percent of them.
Microplastics, like nylon and polypropylene, were found in all but 17 bottles and are thought to be introduced during the packaging process.
Plastic Bottles’ Carbon Footprint Not only do manufactured water bottles contain pesky microplastics, they almost always end up as litter or garbage.
America’s plastic recycling rate is a lowly 23 percent, resulting in billions of plastic water bottles ending up in landfills, rivers, oceans and our neighborhood streets each year.
Plastic water bottles have a sizable carbon footprint, too.
What You Can Do Avoid consuming potentially dangerous microplastics by drinking tap water from a reusable water bottle instead of buying single-use plastic bottles.
Stainless steel and glass bottles are popular, eco-friendly hydration choices on the market; each has its strengths and weaknesses.
Glass is fragile and weighs more, but it’s more easily recycled.
9 Alternatives to Single-Use Plastic Straws
But consider the popularity of drinks like fountain sodas, iced lattes and bubble teas; all the accompanying plastic straws add up to a lot of plastic waste.
According to Strawless Ocean, we use 500 million straws every day.
Those straws are difficult to recycle and add to the plastic catastrophe happening in our oceans.
The Last Plastic Straw maintains a list of businesses that have taken their Last Plastic Straw Challenge and eliminated single-use plastic straws from their establishments so you can support them with your patronage.
The other good news is that there are lots of practical alternatives to the single-use plastic straw, including the nine options below.
Reusable Plastic Reusable plastic alternatives are probably not the best solution but are far superior to their single-use siblings.
Metal Like glass, aluminum or stainless steel straws can conduct temperature — but for ease and durability, metal is hard to beat.
Aardvark was the official partner of Strawless in Seattle and is known for making stronger straws.
Ice Straw Fancy a straw but don’t want to fool around with reusables or compostables?
No Straw Is no straw a radical move or just, as Strawless Ocean claims, an effort to stop sucking?
Earth Day 2018: Preventing Plastic-Filled Oceans
“End Plastic Pollution” is this year’s Earth Day theme, and there’s no denying that it’s a timely, important one.
A Vast Problem How did all this plastic get in the oceans, anyway?
And what are people doing about it?
Check out some of our top articles on the topic: Death in the Water: How Plastic Is Poisoning Our Oceans Plastic has been collecting in the marine environment since plastic production began in the 1950s — in fact, each square mile of the ocean contains more than 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.
“We need to prevent plastics from washing into the oceans in the first place.” Seabin Project Aims to Reduce Ocean Pollution The Seabin Project, the research and development branch of Australian technology innovation company Seabin, has created a floating, bucket-shaped trash bin for use at marinas, private pontoons, residential lakes, inland waterways, ports harbors and yacht clubs.
Taking Action Now it’s your turn to make a difference.
Start by calculating your plastic consumption with Earth Day Network’s Plastic Pollution Calculator.
Here are some ideas from Earth Day Network: Before buying anything new, ask yourself if you can use something else you already have instead.
We can end plastic pollution.
Let’s make Earth Day 2018 the day that starts that revolution.
Try Furoshiki, Packaging Without the Plastic
In Japan, the art of furoshiki helps many people avoid plastic by wrapping everything from sandwiches to wedding gifts in fabric.
Learning furoshiki takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it, you may never need to use a plastic bag or wrapping paper again.
What Is Furoshiki?
The word furoshiki refers to both to the fabric itself and the practice of wrapping items in cloth.
Modern furoshiki developed in the Edo period, when people visiting the public bath wrapped their clothes in a piece of fabric while they bathed, then used the fabric as a bath mat while they dressed.
Available in boutiques or online, these fancy furoshiki are great for wrapping gifts.
For everyday use, you don’t have to spend a fortune.
Whether thrifted or new, fabric should be thick enough to support the weight of the object you want to wrap, but not too thick for tying in knots.
Nowadays, convenience and personal taste take precedence.
Start by wrapping something simple, like a gift box or a book.
