Recycling plastic is doing more harm than we realise – so what’s the alternative? Reducing plastics must be the priority ✒️ JamesGDyke via ipaperviews
means trying to modify materials that have been produced to resist change. It’s their longevity and resilience that makes them such an attractive material.because it diverts waste that could up in the environment such as the ocean, but there is a reason it’s the last R in Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Reusing plastics can keep them out of the waste and recycling system for longer. But reducing plastics must be the priority.
Almost everything we buy includes or is wrapped in plastic. Plastics can serve an important role in protecting some products, but do we need plastic-wrapped corn on the cob? I tried to go plastic free for a week after reviewing the avalanche of research clearly showing that plastic pollution was getting out of control. That meant any internet shopping or online groceries was out of the question. It also meant searching for alternatives to plastic-wrapped products in the supermarket.
In 2019, UK supermarkets produced nearly 900,000 tonnes plastic packaging, almost all of it ending up as waste. In order to reduce my environmental impact, I also try to avoid, which is good because cheese, milk, and yoghurt would have been off the menu as they all have plastic packaging. Breakfast cereal comes in a cardboard box but has a plastic inner bag. The apples I wanted only came wrapped in plastic. The meat-free burgers were inside a plastic tray.
There are promising plant-based plastics that do not contain toxic substances and breakdown quickly into harmless by-products. But we cannot expect them to rapidly scale up production to meet today’s almost insatiable demands. The only effective solution to the plastics problem is the rapid reduction in their use. Simply put, we need to consume far less plastic. This may come from realising that in manufacturing convenience, we have created an environmental and health crisis.
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