Greeny News

despite measures to increase recycling of discarded plastic containers continue to poison the Earth

five hundred tons of lights and Christmas tree at least 25m bags of candy wrappers, covered with turkey, drink bottles and broken toys are thrown away by households in the United Kingdom this year and Christmas news. But only a small proportion of this waste will be recycled.

Even at other times of the year, just under a quarter of plastic waste in the UK is recycled, but during the Christmas period, much less escape tip based on a household survey Sodastream drink. Overall, the recycling of plastics is even lower.

The result is the belief that the Earth is being strangled by a layer of impermeable plastic waste that accumulates in garish large floating islands in the oceans of the world, clogs the channels and rivers, and ingestion by animals, birds and sea creatures.

In many parts of the developing world that acts as a closing scene in the open all along the roads of India, around the villages of Africa and floating fences across America Latin. And when there is building, often burned in open air, releasing toxic fumes.

No overall figure on the extent of the problem, but according to PlasticsEurope, the European association of plastics manufacturers, 265 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide each year. In the UK, around two thirds of this is to package the whole world, this would translate into 170 million tons of plastic are largely created to be collected after use

Even in the recycling rate of almost unparalleled in the EU by 33%, two-thirds of those - more than 113 million tons - that end up in landfills or burned in order to saturate the the environment. A figure almost certainly a substantial underestimate, would be sufficient to cover the 48 contiguous states in a plastic food packaging. If the containers recycled in the world the U.S. rate was 15%, generating more than enough plastic to cover China in plastic wrap. Each year.

few years ago, the United Kingdom has taken to worry about plastic bags: communities were "free bags" and Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that he would talk to vendors on the site disposal. In the absence of major changes, his successor, David Cameron, has recently revived the idea of ??a national tax. In response, the plastics industry argues that the alternative would be even more useless in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

What would a world without plastic look perfect? Earlier this year, Austria-based environmental consulting Denkstatt imagine a world where farmers, retailers and consumers to use wood, cans, bottles and glass bottles and cardboard to cover their assets. Is the mass of containers expected to increase by 3.6 times, it would take more than twice the energy to make and greenhouse gas emissions generated would be 2.7 times higher.

To understand this, consider the properties of plastic that make it so attractive: it is durable, flexible, do not break, you can breathe (or not) and is extremely light. Consequently, the food and drink are protected against damage and maintained for periods of time imaginable.

Wales, Ireland and other countries have chosen to apply a tax on plastic bags to prevent their use, but to make deeper cuts plastic waste alternatives are needed.
lot of "ethical" - sandwiches to diaper bags - rose to biodegradable plastics made from either natural products such as corn starch or by using an additive that helps to break the plastic . However, Turner suggests that this will remain a niche, because the process is expensive and - in his words - is "destroy" a resource that can be recycled