Big Polluters of Plastic Waste

V

Victor

Senior Member
Location
midwest USA
Huge worldwide problem of plastic waste in oceans and water. Kills and chokes whales and other sea creatures.
Greenpeace says that these companies are biggest offenders:

1. Coke 2. Pepsi 3. Nestle 4. Danone 5. Mondelez (Kraft, etc.) 6. Proctor and Gamble 7. Uniliver

So all our bottles of soda and water, etc end up as waste. (Well, I still use them because what's the alternative?) Remember the old days
when everything was glass? And milk cartons.
Greenpeace worked with 42 countries to cleanup the waste. I suspect that America wastes the most.
 

The biggest polluters are still the people and businesses that fail to properly dispose of that plastic even if it's simply taking it to regular trash can. Or the cruise ship industry that still seems to get caught dumping stuff over the side. Or the recreation boaters and passengers that chuck stuff over the side without compunction. Or the parking lot and street polluters. Or the supemarkets that promote plastic recycling yet their own employees wind up putting that plastic into an over stuffed trash cans. Or the midnight haulers who dump where ever and when ever.
 

Remember when going on a family picnic meant hauling a few heavey cases of glass bottles then icing them down in a cooler? So much easier to haul a cooler filled with ice & the drink of choice in plastic bottles.

Then as the population grew the need to produce more product at less cost kicked in. Recycling glass that had to be sanitized before reuse wasn't economical.

Where it gets real is how many people still don't care about disposal. Prior to the latest recycling method separating recylables was done by those with a concern for the environment. Some progress has been made by not needing to separate plastics, glass & paper.

The biggest generator of plastics is one thing the lack of concern as to disposal by the user is another.
 
Victor said:
Huge worldwide problem of plastic waste in oceans and water. Kills and chokes whales and other sea creatures.
Greenpeace says that these companies are biggest offenders:

1. Coke 2. Pepsi 3. Nestle 4. Danone 5. Mondelez (Kraft, etc.) 6. Proctor and Gamble 7. Uniliver

So all our bottles of soda and water, etc end up as waste. (Well, I still use them because what's the alternative?) Remember the old days
when everything was glass? And milk cartons.
Greenpeace worked with 42 countries to cleanup the waste. I suspect that America wastes the most.
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Believe it or not Kuwait is the biggest wasteful country in the world! Just look this up it is strange but true!
 
I blame this entire plastic problem on all our governments... They thought they could save money and funds, but if they had really tested all avenues about plastic, we wouldn't be in this mess, they should have left everything glass, and paper bags for groceries... Just my two cents...
 
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Don't forget straws. Our local environmental group is raising awareness to now use plastic straws. We have a number of restaurants who are not automatically giving you straws when you order a drink.
 
Lc jones said:
Everyone in my neighborhood in Florida recycles, this is also a nationwide habit, hooray!
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No. It's not 'nationwide habit'. Not even close.
Americans' plastic recycling is dumped in landfills, investigation sh

"....Florida's goal of recycling 75 percent of all waste by 2020 looks increasingly out of reach. Only 56 percent of waste is recycled statewide, and only three counties hit the 75 percent mark. ... Aluminum cans have a stronger market, but fewer than one in five cans are recycled in South Florida.....".
 
Look at the cosmetics sections in stores and the drinks sections where there are millions of plastic containers. Some bottlers are saying they will switch to aluminum. I read recently only a small portion of items scheduled for recycling actually goes to a recycle facility I have searched companies that take items for recycling in Houston for paper and they are few and far between. I did find one some weeks back and on my second visit there the bin was gone. I found an elementary school a few days ago that does have two bins strictly for paper so that is good but it being rare to find them is sad. I read there are equal amount of plastic containers and fish in the oceans.
 
mike4lorie said:
I blame this entire plastic problem on all our governments... They thought they could save money and funds, but if they had really tested all avenues about plastic, we wouldn't be in this mess, they should have left everything glass, and paper bags for groceries... Just my two cents...
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I don't know how goverments can be blamed for use of plastic but I do know paper is made mostly from trees. Paper bags for groceries would contribute contribute to https://science.blurtit.com/110849/why-are-forests-being-depleted. If people brought their own cloth bags to bag their groceries that would help.

I just looked in our medicine cabinet. There I found little plastic vials of eye drops, a plastic bottle with Pepto Bismol, a plastic bottle of asprin, a plastic container of underarm deodorant & a bottle of letric shave. I'm trying to imagine the process it would take to form the glass bottles those fit in.

Not everyone has those products in their home but with over 7 billion people earth population, not going to happen but it would be interesting to see a comparison in resources needed to manufacture the various shapes, sizes of those containers.
 
Even though I am only one person, I can do my part.
We have never bought bottled water, it is a marketing scam. (the water good where we live)
Any soda is bought in cans.
We do have reusable water/coffee to go mugs & bottles. We use them.
We don't use plastic forks, spoons etc. I got cheap cutlery from Amazon for get togethers at our house.
We don't use straws. The kids aren't happy, but they will survive.
We do use reuseable shopping bags.
I don't use soap pods, the micro-plastic just goes into the waste water system. . I use the soap, like we all did a few years ago.

Of course we have plastic items in the house we use. It's plastic I can wash and use over and over again. I try to think before I buy. And there is no way to stop using/buying items in disposable plastic, it's everywhere. Our state has done very little about plastic pollution and only a tiny amount towards recycling.
 
Ironically, when plastic was promoted in the 70's it was supposed to
be better for environment than paper waste, by saving trees. Were we deceived?
China has been accepting our waste all these years but they refuse to do this any longer.
BTW not all plastic is recylable...for example, the ring wrapping on containers.
See latest issue of Sierra magazine.
 
Victor said:
Ironically, when plastic was promoted in the 70's it was supposed to
be better for environment than paper waste, by saving trees. Were we deceived?
China has been accepting our waste all these years but they refuse to do this any longer.
BTW not all plastic is recylable...for example, the ring wrapping on containers.
See latest issue of Sierra magazine.
Click to expand...
Agra-business is still laying waste to vast tracks of trees. So we saved nothing.
Now the world is covered in plastic waste, air/water/ice/all living things.
 
Nothing new. I've already read reports of 'dirty recycling' loads being landfilled. Along with high value plastics getting priority some who recycle don't pay attention and put unrecycleable plastics, metals or trash in the recycling containers which can make the whole lot bad. Here they don't collect number 6 or plastic bags even though they're marked as recyclable.
 
How do you stop humans from throwing plastic stuff away? I dunno. I know there's a huge floating plastic bottle continent in the ocean. And there's nobody but us to blame. One of the pics that brought this home to me was trash mountain ON TOP of Mount Everest.pollution.jpg
 
Aunt Bea said:
When life hands you lemons make lemonade. :)

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I'll have to watch the video but the most common complaint about recycling is the cost and process which can be excessive.

I seem to remember in the 70s and 80s they tried to recycle used sneaker rubber and along with tires for paving roads. But that faded by the late 80s. Alot eco policies are initiated but there is little or no follow through by anyone. Now were at the point many have to be educated about pollution and recycling from square one.
 

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