by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The American Plastics Council estimates that only about 5% of all plastics manufactured are actually being recycled and it is therefore hardly surprising that we have a problem with plastic garbage patches in both the Pacific and the Atlantic.
Much of this plastic, as waste, finds its way into streams and rivers and lastly into the sea where it drifts on the ocean currents until, finally, it seems to come to gyrate around in the two vortex areas.
Aside from the fact that not recycling those manufactured plastics – most of which, theoretically, can be recycled – is causing a waste problem of humongous proportions on a global scale, it also means that it is a serious drain on resources, such as oil and its derivatives.
The plastic bag is one of the great culprits of all plastic waste and is also one item of plastic waste that is, in fact, very hard to recycle, or so, at least, I understand. Other plastics are no problem, and this list is headed by polypropylene and polyethylene and PET.
Every plastic bottle, every plastic fact food containers, etc. that is not recycled is not just an item of waste but a wasted resource.
However, as I keep saying, the first “R” of waste management is “reduce” and thus we should be reducing the stuff first and foremost and that has to begin with you and me. So out goes bottled water and in comes the reusable bottle and tap. Out goes the baggie and in comes the reusable grocery bag, etc.
After “reduce” the next most important “R” of waste management is “reuse” and thus we should be looking for reuse opportunities for any item of “waste, whether plastic or other.
And only then, and that very far down the line, comes recycling, and if we do the other necessary “Rs” of which, as far as I am concerned there are more than just the three always quoted, then there may be very little to actually recycle but destroying the shape and remaking.
© 2011
