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posted by
martyb
on Thursday March 28 2019, @04:56AM
from the California:-'We're-banning-straws!'-EU:-'Hold-my-big-gulp.' dept.
from the California:-'We're-banning-straws!'-EU:-'Hold-my-big-gulp.' dept.
On Wednesday the EU Parliament voted to ban
single-use plastic products such as the straws, cutlery and cotton buds that are clogging the world's oceans.
The ban will take effect in 2021.
Product categories banned include: Cutlery, plates, straws, polystyrene food and drink containers, cotton swabs with plastic stems, and plastic grocery bags. Additionally,
Rules insisting that polluters pay the costs of a clean-up are strengthened, particularly for cigarette manufacturers, who will have to support the recycling of discarded filters.
According to the EU Commission, the waste caused by these products poses a threat to wildlife and fisheries.
No word on disposable diapers.
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EU bans use-once-and-toss plastic items
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The Official Colorado State Vegetable is now the "state legislator".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28 2019, @06:38AM (2 children)
One thing they keep missing with this anti-plastic movement is the packaging of items. Yes, those scissor-proof, bomb-proof SINGLE-USE plastic shells that surround almost every tech item in the store. And while we're at it, what about all the very single-use plastic packaging like packets of chips, sweets, and other foods. Before plastics there were alternatives which got displaced by the 'cheaper' plastic (but now we pay the environmental damage cost of that 'cheaper').
(Score: 5, Interesting) by theluggage on Thursday March 28 2019, @11:41AM (1 child)
If you read beyond the first few paragraphs of TFA, there is also stuff about reducing plastic packaging, new targets for recycling plastic bottles, plus strengthening the 'polluter pays' policy.
In the case of food packaging there's a packaging vs. food waste trade-off.
However, those finger-shredding blister packs have no excuse for living and should be banned under Health & Safety, consumer protection and the much-needed "bloody annoying crap" act as well as environmental protection. Mind you, that probably applies to 90% of the actual goods inside said packaging...
What I never see is any discussion of how and why so much of this stuff is ending up in the ocean... I don't mean from a denialist never-heard-of-groundwater-or-water-erosion POV, but what are the most common routes and can they be stopped? I can think of several coastal landfill sites that have been part of land reclamation schemes for decades - long enough that they might be falling into neglect by now (and if sea levels should rise...) If those are crumbling, then buying a re-usable coffee mug today won't help.
Is there too much focus on recycling (which can be very fragile if people throw the wrong stuff in the bins) rather than being more pragmatic segregating plastic waste so that it can be disposed of in ways that make it less likely to end up inside a whale?
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Thursday March 28 2019, @07:26PM
Good point, how does it wind up in the ocean?
At the same time, keep in mind that ND that over 90% of the plastic enters the ocean from Asia and Africa. The West is only a small contributor.
We should still do what we can, of course, and changing products here will have a knock-on effect elsewhere.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.