Plastic in the 'ocean'

We all hear just how many millions of tons of plastic are being dumped in the sea every day.

I put my plastic in the bin and Barnsley council take it away. How does it then end up in the sea? I certainly don't expect them to be dumping it in there

 

The majority of it isn't 'dumped' in there, it ends up in there.

https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/plastic-end-ocean/

 

Saw an article on this, Cause of 80% of plastic in the Oceans are from 10 rivers situated in Africa and Asia..

 

plastic and nuclear test bombs

 

Visit Indonesia, it's burnt in many places, in mountainous areas it's thrown in gulleys that gets washed to sea.

Go to our seaside towns, lots of litter that gets washed away, or some fishermen that just cut nets loose

Multiply that in all countries and 9bn people and we have consumption planet earth

 

You're right but still shouldn't more be done to stop it accidentally getting into a river once it has been placed into a bin and entrusted to the council? I don't think it's enough to say 'it accidentally blows away from the landfill'. Then secure your landfill.
I understand how hard it is to stop microbeads and things from e ding up there but surely there is simply no excuse for plastic bottles and carrier bags when the real cause is that people are choosing to allow them into the sea either through deliberate littering or what is essentially negligence.

If the media out as much a effort into drawing peoples attention to HOW the plastic bottles get into the sea instead of simply repeating that they so then I feel the problem could be significantly reduced much quicker. I don't see how they will reduce plastic bottle usage any time soon as there is no viable alternative but if people instead campaigned against the negligent handling of plastic waste once its in a bin and campaigned against littering harder then the amount that enters the sea can be reduced significantly

 

All this plastic waste isn't coming from England. Or Germany or France. Not even America. There's some, of course, but not much as a percentage of what goes into the oceans. There's a few arseholes in this country (and in Germany and France and Italy and America), but most people put their litter in the bin. Most people recycle. Our councils do a decent job of managing the waste. Go to Africa, the Caribbean, large parts of Asia and South America and there's plastic everywhere. You're in a rain-forest and it's beautiful but it's full of plastic bottles. If you haven't been to these places and seen it it's difficult to explain how bad it is. The scale of littering is beyond our comprehension because we just don't do it. It's not our media that has to change, they've done a decent job, we all believe in doing our little bit. Elsewhere people and governments just don't.

 

Oh I agree with that I've seen the photos of the rainforests which are awful. It's just that it seems strange they're focusing on us in this country not using plastic bottles etc instead of focusing on us not letting it end up in the floor or in the sea. The focus they show in UK media is definitely talking about changing our plastic usage not about that abroad

 

Our media can't influence other countries. They can influence us. While ever there's room for improvement we should try to improve. I think it's a good thing we all care. As a country, the population and the government and the media, we don't like making a mess. We want a better planet. And maybe, if we keep trying to get our own house in order, other countries will look towards us as an example.

When I was a kid, I'm significantly older than you, we weren't focused on these things and the place was a bit of a dump. It's improved significantly in my lifetime and I don't think it's a bad thing to want to improve further.

 

I don't either. I've been looking into the canned water issue and it is apparently available but extremely expensive. You can also get large cans that are reclosable but again the look expensive

Id love to know the price difference as I'd happily pay a little extra for an aluminium can than for a plastic bottle

 

The issue is the recycable mentality, if everyone replaced Plastic with Ali, then in years to come the issue would be Ali floating in the sea. In reality the plastic waste issue is caused by the convenience society we live in today from packaging to manufacturing.

 

Plastic is harder to recycle and degrades in quality each time
Aluminium can be recycled into high quality aluminium. That's the difference, we don't recycle plastic as much because you can't recycle it to the same grade

 

Just use less plastic then. Pretty simple.

 

And thus, all the world's problems are solved. "Just stop doing it then, it's pretty simple"

Vesp77 for President, elected with unanimity, using the never previously conceived campaign of "Just stop doing it then"

The earth's populous were aghast at the simplicity but effectiveness of the message, and it echoed across the stratosphere, "Duh, we never ******* thought of that."

 

Sigh.

It is simple. Stop buying/using single use plastics. I have.

 

He didn't say stop doing it then. He said use less. A good example above being someone wishing water could be sold in aluminium rather than plastic bottles, when you can just buy a reusable container or moreover question the need to buy bottled water in this country at all.

 

This. buy an aluminium water / liquid carrier and fill it from your tap. I got one for when I go out walking but have ended up taking it out most days to work or wherever. Simple really. Saves money and the planet.

 

Not always possible, no matter how much one may try. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't aim to use as little of the stuff as possible, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

 

I think you're being a little kind on America there Jay. If I remember correctly you've done a bit of travelling there? We did a road trip in March, and were beyond horrified at their obsession with single use cutlery and polystyrene plates, even in a lot of restaurants and hotels. When we asked a few people, they said that the logic behind it was twofold - that it keeps food warm very efficiently, and it probably works out cheaper than employing somebody to wash dishes and / or run a dishwasher several times a day. Obviously that doesn't change the utter wastefulness, or the fact that polystyrene is immensely difficult to recycle, and highly damaging to the environment if not disposed of correctly.

 

Wasn't referring to how wasteful they are with resources, they're the kings of the world in that respect, rather that they do, at least, have a functioning waste disposal system. Plastic is overused, but it doesn't litter the country. Not to anywhere near the extent I've seen it elsewhere at any rate.