Model Train Journal

Plastic pollution: Green light for 'historic' treaty
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60590515

The world is set to get a global treaty to tackle plastic pollution.

Nearly 200 countries have agreed to start negotiations on an international agreement to take action on the "plastic crisis".

UN members are tasked with developing an over-arching framework for reducing plastic waste across the world.

There is growing concern that discarded plastic is destroying habitats, harming wildlife and contaminating the food chain.

Supporters describe the move as one of the world's most ambitious environmental actions since the 1989 Montreal Protocol, which phased out ozone-depleting substances.



It's thought more than five trillion pieces of plastic are in the world's oceans, which can take years to break down

Each year, 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced and 40% of that is single-use - plastic only used once before it's thrown away

More than eight million tonnes of plastic enters the world's oceans each year and most of that escapes from land

Not all plastic can be recycled, either because of the way it's made or because it's too expensive or difficult to do so

Animals on land or at sea can be harmed by plastic. They can get trapped in carrier bags or food packaging or mistake plastic for food.

And your solution is?

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:And your solution is?

Buy more BRASS!

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:And your solution is?

Better management of the waste. Don't dump it in the ocean. Stop trash barges. Stop cruise ships from dumping at sea. Cleaner drinking water. Less relying on bottled waters. Small snack bags. Chips always come in a bag less than half full. With the price of chips we may see less empty bags in the trash. $ 8.39 a lbs for Doritos .

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:And your solution is?

Stop buying plastic toy trains from China..... That may come to a stop along with many other items as China continues to threaten to invade Taiwan.

robert. wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:And your solution is?

Better management of the waste. Don't dump it in the ocean. Stop trash barges. Stop cruise ships from dumping at sea. Cleaner drinking water. Less relying on bottled waters. Small snack bags. Chips always come in a bag less than half full. With the price of chips we may see less empty bags in the trash. $ 8.39 a lbs for Doritos .

It will be interesting to see what they will come up with to replace all the single use plastic containers and packaging.

I think all of the “recycling” collected here is packed off to an energy-generating incinerator. Glass and metal is sorted out, then the plastic and much of the paper/cardboard is burned. There’s a real effort here to divert as much as possible from going into the landfill.

healey36 wrote:I think all of the “recycling” collected here is packed off to an energy-generating incinerator. Glass and metal is sorted out, then the plastic and much of the paper/cardboard is burned. There’s a real effort here to divert as much as possible from going into the landfill.

We were told that glass was a problem here for the recycling company and that they just throw it away.....everything else at the county dump gets sorted out and where it goes after that is a mystery.

Seems that while individuals are doing their part it's totally unclear that after pickup the stuff set out for recycling actually gets recycled. Therein may reside the real problem; best intentions departing households and being picked up but the final delivery to being actually recycled is unclear.