Global Warming vs Plastic Pollution

Posted on 09 Jan 2019

Dominic Lawson is a Sunday Time’s political journalist. His column Sunday December 30^th highlighted how the government’s plastic bag tax has failed to reduce the use of plastic and that alternative materials such as paper bags add to Global Warming. I wrote to the Times to support this view and the following is the unedited version of what was said.

“At last we have an article (Dominic Lawson Times 30/12/2018) which exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of the Governments “War on Plastic”. They know, as do the major retailers, that any other material to replace plastic bags be it paper or cotton simply adds to CO₂ emissions thus global warming.

I too have a copy of the 2011 Environmental Agency Report (very sad) which emphasises that in addition to their multi-use up to 70% in some areas, all these “single use” plastics bags were and are 100% recyclable.

Blue planet 2 told us that Coral Reefs are 1% of the oceans floor but that they support 20% of all aquatic life. David Attenborough then intoned 25 – 30% of these reefs were either dead or dying due to Global Warming. What he didn’t say was that as a consequence, replacing plastic (particularly in packaging) by paper, board, glass or tin, not only adds to the death of the Coral Reefs due to CO₂ emissions, but also uses more of the Earth’s natural resources.

Plastic is an abundant, lightweight, low cost, versatile material which is perfect for packaging, particularly food packaging. It is also unique in so many other ways, particularly at throwing itself into hedgerows, lay-bys and rivers as well as littering our streets. When we see a multiple car crash, do we blame the cars? But somehow, we have come to blame the plastic rather than the morons who chuck it away.”

I would be interested to have any thoughts you may have on Global Warming vs Plastic Pollution as, at the moment any concern with generating unnecessary CO₂ emissions or extra packaging waste seems to have disappeared.

For those interested why not join me on LinkedIn or visit our website www.nationalflexible.co.uk for more information.

#DontHatePlastic