Plastic Free July is coming

In Belgium the government has already done somewhat to avoid plastic waste. Nowhere in shops and supermarkets, plastic bags are presented. Vegetables can be bought by placing them in the basket without a bag, or with paper bags provided by the shop, or in the reusable cotton bags.

Ear buds and a lot of body-care and make-up items are now all made of paper. But for the reusable cups, it is striking that they are not yet sufficiently reused … So there is still a lot of work to be done.

 

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Preceding

Plastic world under control

Helping end plastic waste

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Additional reading

1. Freshwater, marine and coastal pollution
2. The European Union – the environmental challenges and your voice
3. Stepping forward with public commitments for Making different sectors carbon neutral by 2050
4. Green Deal: new EU rules on limiting importing and exporting plastic waste

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Further related

1. Plastic Pollution
   Too Much Plastic Waste on the Beaches
2. How ‘Forever’ Can Be Destructive
3. Plastics Waste in the Time of CoronaPlastic and Ocean
4. Global Plastic Waste Contributors
5. Plastic waste’s poisonous journey through food chain
6. Ocean Plastic: Women Who Bear the Brunt, Women Who are at the Front
7. The Future of our Oceans: Are we getting ‘Hung Up’ on the wrong issue?
8. Formations of different Plastic
9. Are your clothes feeding the fish?
10. Just Keep Recycling: How Can We Save Our Oceans From Fashion Pollution?
11. Reducing Our Plastic Waste Footprint
12. What Is Plastic Waste & Why It Is The World’s Biggest Problem?
13. These Four Plastic Items Make Up Almost Half Of All Ocean Trash
14. Drive to rid world of plastic bags in spotlight
15. EU bans some single use plastics
16. Different Plastic Types & Which Types of Plastic can be Recycled?
17. Microbes in cow stomachs can help break down plastic
18. New method turns biodegradable plastics into foam to combat pollution
19. An End to Pennsylvania’s Preemption on Local Single-use Plastic Laws?
20. 5 Sneaky Plastics To Avoid This Plastic-Free July
21. A Guide To Plastic Free July
22. Thousands Sign Petition To Ban Plastic Packaging For All Non-Food Items

Recycle IT

What can you do this July?

Plastic Free July^®is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Will you be part of Plastic Free July by choosing to refuse single-use plastics? Choosing to refuse plastic packaging in July might be an option for you!

Ask you family, friends, sports club or office to commit stop buying or using items packed in single-use plastic. Swap to a reusable alternative. For example, you could swap out takeaway coffee cups for a reusable one, you could start buying plastic-free toothbrushes or use a personal reusable water bottles and so on.

Plastic Free Poster 1

Can you Refuse’ Single Use Plastic?

Each year in July people all over the world aim to exclude plastic bottles, cutlery, fruit packing, coffee cup lids and other common…

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Plastic world under control

It is incredible how much plastic is polluting so many places.

Oxo-degradable plastic does not properly biodegrade, is not compostable and adversely affects how conventional plastic is recycled.

The European Parliament advocate creating a genuine single market for recycled plastics, and propose measures to tackle marine litter.

Incentives to collect marine litter at sea, new EU-wide standards and definitions for biodegradability and compostability, and a complete EU ban on oxo-degradable plastic by 2020 are among the proposals set out in the non-binding draft resolution, adopted on Thursday September 13,with 597 votes to 15 and 25 abstentions.

We shall have to think seriously to go back to other materials, like bamboo, and to reuse the plastics.

A stable internal market for secondary raw materials is needed to ensure the transition towards a circular economy, say MEPs. They call on the EU Commission to propose quality standards in order to build confidence and boost the market for secondary plastics, taking into account various grades of recycling which are compatible with different uses, while ensuring safety, for instance when recycled plastics are used in food containers.

It also would not be bad when countries would organise and try to bring people to take more in account how they use their plastic material. Reducing the VAT on products containing recycled materials could also help to get consumers more going for recycled material.

This week, being in Greoux les Bains, I notice still a lot has to be done to have more sensibility in communities to have pre-selection and separate collection and recycling. It would also not be bad to bring in more deposit-refund schemes, and increased public awareness, which also would minimise the throw away in nature attitude of certain cyclists.

According to the European Commission, 87% of EU citizens say they are concerned by the environmental impact of plastics. Global annual production of plastics reached 322 million tonnes in 2015, and is expected to double over the next 20 years. Only 30% of plastic waste is collected for recycling, while only 6% of plastic placed on the market is made from recycled materials. Plastic accounts for 85 % of beach litter and over 80 % of marine litter.

The European plastic market is not currently aligned with the circular economy. More than 25.8 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced per year in the EU, and only 29.7% being recycled. This represents a clear loss in the plastic market loop. Moreover, this goes against the EU legislation on waste according to high environmental impact. Low recycling rates of plastic are mainly due to the situation of packaging waste (i.e. main plastic waste fraction), since it is mainly domestic residue and consequently the quality of the material collected depends on the system of segregation available and the environmental awareness of citizens.

Much more villages and cities should make more work by selective waste collection.