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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brad Witt, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Pat Robertson, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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Beaches in Naples, Italy after a storm. Curbing plastics is an Important issue all across the globe
Plastic Pollution
Plastic was a marvel invention for mankind, One of the earliest examples was invented by Alexander Parkes in 1855, who named his invention Parkesine. We know it today as celluloid. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was first polymerised between 1838-1872. Mass produced Plastic was invented in 1907. Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland created Bakelite, the first real synthetic, mass-produced plastic, meaning it contained no molecules found in nature. But humans are pigs and I don’t mean to insult pigs. With the many uses for plastic comes the responsibility of proper discard of used products. Unfortunately humans are lazy, careless and have an attitude of not giving a damn about the planet. And because of their not giving a damn we are in trouble. Humans have caused such damage to the oceans, marine life, and frankly to other humans, that humans with a give a damn attitude are finally acting. From doing clean up on the ocean in vast operations that actually sweep up plastic debris. In March 2016, scientists in Japan after scooping up some sludge from outside a bottle recycling facility in Osaka, they discovered bacteria which had developed the ability to decompose, or “eat,” plastic. And scientists are working on even more natural bacteria to eat plastic. But that’s not coming fast enough. In Europe 85% of the continent salt water beaches and seas exceeds pollution standards on marine standards. The Mediterranean Sea is so polluted with 274 pieces of plastic every 100 meters, and beneath the waters has so much micro-plastic it is like a plastic soup. In an effort to clean up the plastic, the European Union has declared that to clean up its 28 million tons of annually generated plastic. It will ban the sale of 10 of the most used and generated items July 3, 2021. It will include bottle caps, straws, plates, silverware, Styrofoam food and beverage containers and other items that usually wash up. This is a start of a full ban on throwaway plastics by the end of this decade. And a comprehensive re-use of all other plastics. And a new business of recycling these other plastics in order to start a circular system of all plastics over and over. These measures re the toughest in the world, plastic recycling rates to 41% three times the rate of the United States. By 2025 the EU hopes to be over 50% in recycling rates. And 77% of plastic bottles by 2025 with 90% by 2029. These measures will fall back upon the manufacture. If the manufacture produces packages with plastic they will pay for the pollution for their products. Companies will no longer be allowed to send their plastic wastes to other countries. That’s how the EU got rid of 1.7 million tons of plastic waste each year. The rest was either burnt or put in landfills or thrown in the waterways. Unfortunately the United States generates the largest amount of plastic waste in the world, and is now filling up with plastic since China no longer accepts imported waste. The U.S is conducting a review of their plastic waste problem and hopefully will tackle the problem as the EU has done. The EU’s measures will reduce greenhouse emissions by 55%, and drop its percentage below 1990 levels by 2030.It will shave off 3.4 million tons of CO2 off Europes carbon footprint which will preempt enviro damages of 22 billion euros($26,203,100,000.00) by 2030. There are other things in the mix in the reduction of plastics that the public don’t even know about, but as long as oil is cheap the production of plastic will continue to boom. The other problem is that plastic production employs 1.5 million people and the plastic industry is a huge lobbying group but lost in the vote to reign in plastic items. Europeans have joined in and now recycle 92% sinc3 2006 and land filling has dropped 54%. Manufactures have to pay close to $1,000.00 in costs if their product is not recyclable per metric ton. Some companies like Coke have voluntarily started using 50% of its product from recycled products. Packaging is the worst of plastic not being reused. Europe is heading for a closed loop in products which means it all will be used over and over, and are getting all plastic bottles to be clear and the same. I hope the US follows suit quickly, there is no reason we need all different colored bottles. Its all just a advertising gimmick and needless waste on resources and a environmental nightmare. People need to start paying attention and do what is right for the earth. Buy a stainless steel water bottle fill it up at home and re- use it forever. Its all about simple things and not being so lazy.
Tammy
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