In an effort to reduce plastic waste, Christine Jeavans is giving up plastic for the whole of August:
"By this I mean not buying or accepting anything which contains plastic or is packaged in plastic. So, no take-away coffees, bottles of water or pre-packed sandwiches. I'll be forsaking punnets of strawberries and packs of chicken, supermarket milk and bottled cleaning products, and switching to reusable nappies for my toddler.
Durable, versatile, lightweight, hygienic, cheap and strong: synthetic plastic is arguably one of the most useful inventions of the last century. But those very same attributes of durability and cheapness make plastic one of the most pervasive forms of waste on the planet.
Evidence of our failure to deal with plastic rubbish is everywhere, from bulging landfill sites and countryside litter in the UK to a toxic plastic "soup" swilling around the middle of the North Pacific, thousands of miles from continental land.
And yet we used to manage without all this plastic. In the 1950s, less than five million tonnes of plastic was produced worldwide, today it is close to 100 million tonnes. "
I really really cannot imagine life without PLASTIC.. we humans have become so reliant on plastic products and packaging.. it'd be back to cavemen age if there were really no plastic around! Looks like i have to be more conscious about how i use/throw away my plastic stuff!!
Plastic types:
To assist recycling of disposable items, the Plastic Bottle Institute of the Society of the Plastics Industry devised a now-familiar scheme to mark plastic bottles by plastic type
1) PET (PETE), polyethylene terephthalate: Commonly found on 2-liter soft drink bottles, cooking oil bottles, peanut butter jars.
2) HDPE, high-density polyethylene: Commonly found on detergent bottles, milk jugs.
3) PVC, polyvinyl chloride: Commonly found on plastic pipes, outdoor furniture, shrink-wrap, water bottles, salad dressing and liquid detergent containers.
4) LDPE, low-density polyethylene: Commonly found on dry-cleaning bags, produce bags, trash can liners, food storage containers.
5) PP, polypropylene: Commonly found on bottle caps, drinking straws, yogurt containers.
6) PS, polystyrene: Commonly found on "packing peanuts", cups, plastic tableware, meat trays, take-away food clamshell containers
7) OTHER, other: This plastic category, as its name of "other" implies, is any plastic other than the named #1–#6, Commonly found on certain kinds of food containers, Tupperware, and Nalgene bottles.
In an effort to reduce plastic waste, Christine Jeavans is giving up plastic for the whole of August:
"By this I mean not buying or accepting anything which contains plastic or is packaged in plastic. So, no take-away coffees, bottles of water or pre-packed sandwiches. I'll be forsaking punnets of strawberries and packs of chicken, supermarket milk and bottled cleaning products, and switching to reusable nappies for my toddler.
Durable, versatile, lightweight, hygienic, cheap and strong: synthetic plastic is arguably one of the most useful inventions of the last century. But those very same attributes of durability and cheapness make plastic one of the most pervasive forms of waste on the planet.
Evidence of our failure to deal with plastic rubbish is everywhere, from bulging landfill sites and countryside litter in the UK to a toxic plastic "soup" swilling around the middle of the North Pacific, thousands of miles from continental land.
And yet we used to manage without all this plastic. In the 1950s, less than five million tonnes of plastic was produced worldwide, today it is close to 100 million tonnes. "
I really really cannot imagine life without PLASTIC.. we humans have become so reliant on plastic products and packaging.. it'd be back to cavemen age if there were really no plastic around! Looks like i have to be more conscious about how i use/throw away my plastic stuff!!
Plastic types:
To assist recycling of disposable items, the Plastic Bottle Institute of the Society of the Plastics Industry devised a now-familiar scheme to mark plastic bottles by plastic type
1) PET (PETE), polyethylene terephthalate: Commonly found on 2-liter soft drink bottles, cooking oil bottles, peanut butter jars.
2) HDPE, high-density polyethylene: Commonly found on detergent bottles, milk jugs.
3) PVC, polyvinyl chloride: Commonly found on plastic pipes, outdoor furniture, shrink-wrap, water bottles, salad dressing and liquid detergent containers.
4) LDPE, low-density polyethylene: Commonly found on dry-cleaning bags, produce bags, trash can liners, food storage containers.
5) PP, polypropylene: Commonly found on bottle caps, drinking straws, yogurt containers.
6) PS, polystyrene: Commonly found on "packing peanuts", cups, plastic tableware, meat trays, take-away food clamshell containers
7) OTHER, other: This plastic category, as its name of "other" implies, is any plastic other than the named #1–#6, Commonly found on certain kinds of food containers, Tupperware, and Nalgene bottles.
A month without plastic
