A million bottles a minute: world's plastic binge 'as dangerous as climate change'

Found on The Guardian on Saturday, 01 July 2017
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The demand, equivalent to about 20,000 bottles being bought every second, is driven by an apparently insatiable desire for bottled water and the spread of a western, urbanised “on the go” culture to China and the Asia Pacific region.

Most plastic bottles used for soft drinks and water are made from polyethylene terephthalate (Pet), which is highly recyclable. But as their use soars across the globe, efforts to collect and recycle the bottles to keep them from polluting the oceans, are failing to keep up.

Major drinks brands produce the greatest numbers of plastic bottles. Coca-Cola produces more than 100bn throwaway plastic bottles every year – or 3,400 a second, according to analysis carried out by Greenpeace after the company refused to publicly disclose its global plastic usage.

Introduce extra taxes for plastic bottles (and bags), so that they will become more expensive than glass bottles. Or drastically raise bottle deposits to increase the recycling. However, as long as it "hurts the industry", this won't happen. As long as he economy is more important than the ecosystem, humanity will continue its path to self-eradication.