If the current trend of pollution continues – scientists predict by the year 2050, there could be more plastic in our oceans than fish. That is an extraordinary prediction.

Now, more than 40 large companies in the UK have signed up to an agreement.

The aim: to eliminate single plastic use or packaging that cannot be reused. The goal: to do it in the next seven years.

The move is a first and the decision is expected to be followed by companies in other countries.

Now, a million plastic bottles are purchased every minute in the United States alone.

And approximately 500 million straws are used and discarded in that country every day. For coffee lovers in Britain, perhaps this figure will give you a jolt: 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups are used each year.

So, what can companies and governments do to encourage plastic recycling?

Presenter: Jane Dutton

Guests:

Adrian Mars – Science and Technology Journalist.

Ali Mwanzei – Deputy Director in charge of Field Operations at Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority.

Afroz Shah – A 2016 UN Environment’s Champion of the Earth winner, who focuses on pollution in the oceans.

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10 COMMENTS

  1. All govenments have to collaborate and spend money to collect and deal with plastic waste , instead of farming the work out to people who end up not doing the job but the money is gone ..there should be a World Rubbish Collectors Union 🙂 just like WHO etc ..but that's all too simple I know

  2. Make people pay for the plastic, that should make them think 2 times before throwing them away!
    Reward people for turning in used plastic, that will encourage them to preserve the earth!

  3. We lived w/o plastics for thousands of years. the rhetoric of sacrificing our economy is akin to a junky refusing to quit drugs. We need the wild life, we need clean oceans, we dont need this comforts. from boxes to store payed package handlers, there are very simple solutions that can go a long way, what is lacking is the will to implement them.
    to think that no plastic = no economy is ludicrous.

  4. This is a classic case of the fundamental problem – Man has completely disconnected himself from nature and this is the price man will pay for his arrogance.

  5. 50 years ago we used glass bottles for soda, paid 2 cents deposit for a small bottle and 5 cents for a large one
    It was extra work sorting the bottles, the delivery man would pick up the empties when he made deliveries.

    Just another example of big business dumping on society.

  6. As humans, we have to mobilize together. We have to stop playing the blame game and work as one. Our planet is doomed because our political system pulls us apart, not together.

  7. Give double salary than any respected job to individual , because world will have 11 billion population in 2100. To countinue life on Earth after 300 years , we have to clean before die . I will be Brand ambassador of UN for "Save Earth " campaign , But I will start working after age of 65 . 35 Years to go ….hit life If you are with me 😀

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