If it is discovered that companies consume plastics in the same volume as private households then will they be asked in the future to monitor and report on their ‘plastic footprint’ so that everyone makes a commitment to reducing it?
Most people would probably be surprised to learn just how much plastic they use and discard. A survey has found that the average household throws 128 individual pieces of plastic in the bin in a typical week. Of course during holiday times this number increases to hit peaks at Christmas. This means that across the nation the country discards some 185 billion pieces of all types of plastic in a year from households. If the figure was replicated across UK businesses then that would be a massive impact on the already eye-watering number of pieces of plastic.
Of this 185 billion pieces of plastic, about 65 per cent is film and plastic wrapping and they are rarely recycled. And therefore that means that only around 11 per cent is actually collected with a view to recycling it. Of this, more than 50 per cent is exported and not tracked so that the end result is not known. Twenty-eight per cent of plastic items are sent to landfill sites and Sixty-one per cent are incinerated.
If companies had to report on their ‘plastic footprint’ would they set the trend for more awareness of the problem of plastic waste and from there start the downward trend in their use?
Leave a Reply