An ocean of plastic

An ocean of plastic. Source: www.takepart.com

According to the UK Recycling Guide, 275,000 tonnes of plastic are used each year in the UK. It is about 15 million bottles per day.

One recycled plastic bottle would save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 3 hours. However, most families throw away about 40 kg of plastic every year.

Consumption of this material, which can take up to 500 years to decompose, is increasingly growing in Western Europe and the impact on the environment is massive.

While the plastic packaging that fill up our cupboards and shelves do not seem to grow out of fashion, supermarkets all over the country recently confirmed the 5p levy introduced last October has reduced single-use plastic bag consumption by up to 80 per cent (data from Retail Week, February 2016).

This is great news if we look at the recently updated 2010 Government’s policy paper on waste and recycling which reads ‘In 2013 supermarkets gave out over 8 billion single-use carrier bags across the UK. That is nearly 130 bags per person and equates to about 57,000 tonnes of single-use carrier bags in total over the year’.

The effect of discarded plastic bags on the environment goes beyond littering and potential injury to marine wildlife and it comes as no surprise that they consume resources, including oil, in their creation.

The Government expects that this new targeted, proportionate charge will continue reducing the number of plastic bags used in England, increase their re-use and diminish littering. It also encourages businesses to donate the proceeds from the charge to good causes.

A positive attitude towards the protection of the environment comes from the world of fashion as well. Some adventurous designers have decided to add recycled material to their pieces of art, like London-based womenswear Jaeeun Shin, who conveyed a sustainable message introducing a collection of gowns made from supermarket carrier bags during a week of shows from UK fashion colleges held in June.

This is also good news for Greenpeace, an organisation actively involved in saving the environment, which published the New Year's plastic resolution at the beginning of 2016, suggesting five ways to effectively help the ocean: saying no to single use plastics, recycling and convincing other people to do so are all on the list.

These important initiatives may seem a lot. However, it is a drop in the ocean as the problem still remains: even when disposed of responsibly, plastic bags can last for long periods of time in landfill sites. 

Simply there is no ‘away’ to throw plastic to.