Last year Theresa May announced that by the year 2043 the government aimed to “eliminate all avoidable plastic waste”. It’s not soon enough. Over the past 12 months, the alarm bells have been ringing and the Blue Planet effect has got everyone’s attention. People want to see urgent action on plastics from the government and big business, and they also want to know how to take action themselves. And so, in a new series on BBC One, Anita Rani and I look at what can be done, on both a micro and macro level, to save our planet from the plastic menace.
There are, of course, simple changes we can make. A few years ago in my War on Waste series I revealed that more than 2.5bn plastic-lined paper cups are clogging up our waste system every year because they can’t be recycled. Now most major cafe chains including Starbucks, Pret a Manger and Caffè Nero offer discounts to customers who bring their own reusable “keep cups”. We may also be on the brink of the widespread use of properly recyclable disposable cups (though a keep cup is always the better option).
The supermarkets have got to do their bit because we pick up a third of the plastic in our lives from their shelves
Related: I’m the gutter gourmet: how I spent a month eating other people's leftovers
Continue reading...