Seriously? Look at how they’re making the plastic problem the consumers responsibility again!! 😤😤😤
Making the consumer re-think how we use plastic?? Ffs. Think about how to not keep PRODUCING plastic!! “Many companies, including Procter and Gamble, Coca-Cola and Asda, trade associations and campaigners have joined forces with the government to form the UK Plastics Pact. It’s aimed at making people re-think the way they use plastic and its dangerous impact on the environment if it’s not disposed of properly and recycled”.
There is no away!!! There is no way of disposing of plastic. It takes centuries to break down…and even then it doesn’t just ‘disappear’, it just morphs into microplastics, of which we are now eating a portion in our food and water.
This article is an advertising plug for solent plastics, however the information it contains (up until the advertising bit) is useful, albeit mostly old news.
https://www.solentplastics.co.uk/news/plastic-ocean:-the-clean-up/
“Statistics show each person in the UK creates an average of around 76kg, or 167lbs, of plastic waste per year. This compares with US citizens who produce around 120kg of plastic waste per person per year.”
UK annual plastic waste is now close to 5m tonnes, including enough single-use plastic to fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/17/i-kept-all-my-plastic-year-4490-items-forced-rethink
Here are my thoughts on the plastic issue:
Why is the UK Government making it about the CONSUMER once again. We are always being blamed for the mess. But we are FORCED to buy our products in plastic and in 95% of cases have NO OPTION but to buy something we need DESPITE it being encased in plastic.
We’re told to recycle! Okay fine, except that every bloody council in the country has their own rules, and many are breaking the law!! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45911794 >
Besides that no-one has YET EDUCATED the citizens of the UK how to recycle properly. I travel a lot in the UK due to the nature of my job. Every single place I go to has a different set of rules for recycling, and for what the council will or will not accept. Most of the people I work for are elderly and have NO IDEA how to recycle properly, what impact their incorrect recycling has on every load, and what can or cannot be recycled. I’ve worked for people who recycle their tissues, or soiled serviettes…because it’s paper!!! And paper is recyclable right?
Little did we know that not all of it would be recycled, instead getting dumped in landfills overseas.
Yes there are numbskulls who refuse to recycle, who chuck their trash any which where they please because they are as thick as the proverbial brick, people who dump stuff in the streets, parks, rivers, mountainsides etc etc but those are the minimum. The vast quantity of plastic, especially single-use plastic, is used in the home….
It doesn’t surprise me in the LEAST that companies like Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble are involved….what they want to do is make it OUR FAULT with the Government’s full support and make it about us being FECKLESS citizens and not recycling properly. The REAL ISSUE IS THEM!! They are the ones producing the plastic, they are the ones who are packaging their products in this pernicious shit in the first place, after that the SUPERMARKETS are not taking any responsibility because they then sell these products to us the consumer who then gets BLAMED for the plastic pollution, while they shrug their shoulders and continue to make obscene profits.
THE ONLY BLAME LIES FAIR AND SQUARE AT THE FEET OF THE PRODUCERS OF PLASTIC, THE CORPORATIONS AND COMPANIES THAT MAKE THE PLASTIC PRODUCTS AND THE COMPANIES THAT SELL IT ON TO THE CONSUMER WHO HAS NO OPTION BUT TO BUY THEIR FOOD AND NECESSITIES IN PLASTIC.
The UK Government are complicit in the waste issue and of course we know just why they are teamed up with these plastic waste criminals, it’s because they’re getting MONEY from them. It enables the corporations to continue producing plastic without recourse. It’s called CORRUPTION. End of. Stop producing the stuff. There are OTHER OPTIONS. Support the companies that are making packaging using other methods rather than PETROLEUM PLASTIC. Only when our governments, corporations, big businesses, manufacturers and suppliers/sellers stop being bribed by money and start employing some ethics in business will this plastic issue start being resolved. Now, if the government fined these corporations for the plastic they continue to produce, then they’ll start making the necessary changes.
AS I said in a previous article: Rwanda, Mauritania and Morocco all have bans in place and it’s worth noting that there is no such ban enforced in the UK, US or China, all of which have highly developed plastics industries; producing and exporting plastic bags across the globe – ergo we in the developed countries ARE TO BLAME!! It’s all about making money, the bottom line and obscene profits, and the manufacturers have no interest in the fact that it’s killing the planet.
But, hey….easy way out….keep producing plastic and blame the resulting pollution on the consumers/population.
This is what we need as a mater of urgency:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45965605
Further information for education on plastic pollution:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45911794
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-45787712
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45770358
An estimated 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic had been produced since the early 1950s, with 60% of it ending up in landfills or the natural environment.
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Ann and Martin at the start of the Path in Minehead 
Not Just a Granny 
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