We ask how much plastic waste is too much?

Each person living in the EU generated 36.1 kilos of plastic packaging waste on average according to Eurostat, a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City. The question I guess is whether that is a lot or not?

 

36.1 kilos is almost 80 pounds, put that into ordinary speak and we are talking about nearly 80 cans of soup a year, full that is in plastic waste we on average all use, imagine every week discarding a can and a half of soup worth of plastic, a bi product of life, every week!

Horrified? Maybe not but you should be, this multiplies up very fast when you realise this works out at a monumental 16,130,000 tonnes every year by the EU alone and rising.

 

See the annual wastage for previous years below:

 

We can see by the trend line that this is not the whole picture, these numbers, a can and a half of plastic waste weekly for each of us is growing, and fast. The projected growth if we believe these figures is approximately 12.85% per annum, or put in simple terms over 2 million tonnes of the stuff more next year, are you starting to see why I asked are you horrified?

We started with a simple question, what amount is too much when we are talking plastic waste, we wanted to be balanced, one side saying any amount is too much, the oil producers saying we need plastic, both have their arguments but for us these figures as they are now are too much, when you are pushing the plastic packaging into your recycling bin, by the way only about 40% currently is being recycled and a lot of this is shipped out of the EU as the infrastructure is simply not there to handle it, did you know you were going through quite so much? I know I was surprised.

 

 It is Plastic free July and I really hope a lot of the problem here is knowledge and understanding, do we realise what we are doing, do we understand the effects and moreover do we want to continue or change our habits for a better future for our children and children's children?

Let's try and start to see the problem, when you are going to shop try and support the plastic free alternatives, if the veg is tighly wrapped in plastic every day why not look elsewhere? 

I know we go on about water bottles a lot, we make high end steel reusable water bottles so I guess  we would but again don't buy plastic bottled water, buy a good reusable water bottle and fill it up as you go, it is the little things that we do start to make real change. 

Since plastic bags were taxed we have seen a massive reduction in their usage, you know only the money seemed to change, not the ease or the bag?  So why not with water, there is a bigger saving to be had, a lot more so what are you waiting for, the government to tax you, surely not?

 

Buying a FOSH water bottle is more than saving the planet, it is a social statement, a fashion accessory and part of your daily image, a plastic single use water bottle just cannot begin to compete!

 

 

 

 

 

By the way I have nothing against soup, especially Campbells, this is an analogy only.