I shudder to think what the Coronavirus pandemic has done to our environment when we look at the plastic waste that accompanies it!
Just the parcel shipping with their contents invariably wrapped in plastic is at a horrendous increase. This quite apart from the plastic gloves that seem strewn everywhere.
The so-called recycling of plastic is fiction. So little of it can be effectively recycled and no one seems to care. That is until the enormity of the environmental disaster is way beyond repair.
Masks, whether part plastic or not, are thrown everywhere. Plastic containers just dumped into the roads.
Every minute of every day, the equivalent of a garbage truck full of plastic is emptied into the world’s oceans.
Thanks to BBC series like Blue Planet and Drowning in Plastic, we’ve all seen the devastating effect that plastic waste is having on our world’s wildlife.
Big businesses obviously have little incentive to do more to reduce the plastic in their products. Governments can hardly understand the issues!
Unless the demand is overwhelming from the customer retail outlets merely pay lip service to the issue of plastics!
Over a third of all the plastic packaging in Britain for example comes from ten leading supermarket chains, more than 800,000 tonnes a year.
Sainsbury’s and Tesco seem to charge less for fruit and veg wrapped in plastic.
And the ubiquitous plastic water bottle. With each bottle taking 450 years to decompose, they are the most common litter on our beaches.
we’ve all seen the devastating effect that plastic waste is having on our world’s wildlife
It turns out no one can tell the difference in taste between bottled water and tap water. Further lab analysis reveals that bottled water is no better for us either.
And bottled water is about 500 times more expensive than tap. The equivalent of paying £2,000 in Britain for a pint.
About 50% percent of people admit to arguing about what is and isn’t recyclable at home.
That’s why less than half of all the plastics we produce actually end up in the correct bin.
Malaysia is now one of the biggest importers of British waste plastics, and the local authorities seem to be in denial of this fact.
It means that most of the plastic is illegally burnt causing another HUGE plastic dilemma and that is plastic particles in the air.
But a big problem wet wipes and these consist of a plastic core. Our coronavirus issues have leapfrogged the demand for these ubiquitous and thoroughly environmentally unfriendly items.
It seems even our doggie poo bags are a problem. Maybe the key is NOT to pick up but to bury! Poo disintegrates and degrades naturally within about three weeks whilst the plastic is here for many generations.
But given the horrendous problem, there may not be too many generations left! Unfortunately, the self-satisfied grinning McDonald’s hierarchy, having just circumvented a child’s request in England to limit their plastic torrent, may soon be on the backside of their self-satisfied faces. But that does not help the world! It really is a Profound Coronavirus Plastic Waste Disaster.
