The recent Blue Planet 2 documentary on BBC TV brought into sharp focus the levels of plastic waste blighting our planet and causing real damage right now to wildlife on land and sea and we must all play our part in trying to reduce this. There has been a great suggestion that we all pick up at least three pieces of plastic every time we visit the beach and think seriously about alternatives everyday small throwaway items that tend to be now made of plastic.
Three big “little “polluters highlighted recently were plastic drinking straws that for decades were made from waxed paper, “Q” tips that now have a plastic stem when for years it was card and the small white plastic drinks stirrers that so often slip quite literally through the recycling system and have the potential to need hundreds of years to breakdown in the ground or in the sea.
This month KSV Vending are withdrawing their standard plastic drinks stirrers from all of our listings and will in its place be offering a wooden stirrer alternative. Sourced from fully managed and replanted forestry resources these stirrers are the environmentally friendly, renewable and biodegradable solution to this small part of the plastic waste problem.
We all need to face up to the challenges of our lifestyle impact on the planet…it’s the only home we have, we can’t move anywhere else; quite apart from the damage being done to other species we share the Earth with. Remember 80 year ago we manged perfectly well with no plastics at all. Tupperware, the first volume use of plastic in the home was only introduced in the late 1940’s and plastic packaging for foodstuffs which currently covers almost everything we buy has really only been commonplace for around 25 years. Certainly, with my first Saturday job at a small grocer in the early 1970’s everything was packed or wrapped in paper, cardboard, greaseproof paper, glass jars or bottles and tins. Thinking back, I cannot recall anything packed in plastic!
Let’s all play our part where we can, our move to a wooden alternative may just “stir” a few more consciences in the vital move away from being a throwaway plastic society.
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018-04-27/blue-planet-2-plastic-waste-final-episode/
Written by: Colin from KSV.