Can you imagine a life without plastic packaging? British Prime Minister Theresa May recently declared a high-profile 'plastic packaging war': 25 years to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste. To achieve this goal, in the past only 5 pence levied in supermarkets Consumption tax on plastic bags will be extended to all stores in the United Kingdom. Supermarkets will provide plastic-free access to bulk food items. There are even proposals that the 25-pence 'latte tax' will be levied on the lid of the coffee cup because it also contains plastic ingredients. .
This 'new 25-year green plan' 'attack gun' has only just started, and everyone is hoping to join the 'battle.' According to the BBC, not long ago, Martha, Britain's largest retailer, The department store was overpowered with cauliflower by the public Tucao: two cauliflower, a lemon plus a vanilla actually sold for £ 2. These in the market only 69 pence you can buy fruits and vegetables, due to add a fine plastic tray And packaging, skyrocketing prices, British netizens joked on Twitter that 'cauliflower steak'.
British people's enthusiasm to resist plastic packaging more than that.According to the British "Bystanders" magazine reports, more and more customers to give up to Tesco and other supermarket chains shopping, but more in the farmers market to buy native ingredients, many consumers change On burlap sacks, shopping on the streets, some government officials began holding recyclable bamboo coffee cups at the same time, the major supermarkets are not far behind. Tesco will phase out all the stores in the disposable plastic bags, Martha The department store announced that it will no longer sell plasticine. "Bystander" ridicule: "According to this trend, in the near future, anyone with a plastic bag in the street may glimpse glare?
Of course, there are also British people and businesses who have a negative attitude toward restricting plastic packaging, for example, some people buy plastic rain buckets in advance to prevent them from being shelved.Some supermarkets look forward to this plastic-limiting storm can quickly pass, so they can Put the chopped cauliflower on a plastic tray and put it on the shelves, some retailers also exclaimed to the Guardian that finding alternatives to plastic packaging is an old issue for their predecessors.
What kind of packaging can replace plastic? Whether they are more environmentally friendly than plastic? Bystander magazine magazine believes that plastic alternatives may cause more environmental problems.
According to a 2010 British government report, producing 1 kg of polylactic acid (PLA) biodegradable plastics requires 1.7 square meters of fertile land, while consuming 60 million tons of plastic throughout Europe each year, and if both are replaced with biodegradable plastics Will occupy 100,000 square kilometers of farmland, which is unrealistic.And this biodegradable plastic will be directly broken down into methane, the power of this greenhouse gas is 20 times that of carbon dioxide.
The same high cost of using paper bags and cotton bags as alternatives, the plastic packaging tax was introduced in Scotland in 2003 and the Scottish government took two years to compare the 'life cycle' of paper and plastic bags with surprising results. Similarly, cotton bags are not a more environmentally friendly alternative, and according to the 2017 report by the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, cotton cultivation requires large amounts of water and fertilizers, a cotton bag to be It used 173 times as much as the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from producing and disposing of a plastic bag.
It is hard to find alternatives that are more environmentally friendly than plastics and we also find it hard to imagine a life without plastic packaging. The emergence of big supermarkets in the 1970s changed the British diet because of the presence of refrigerators and large packaging, To solve the problem of shortage of fresh fruits and vegetables at that time.For example, unpackaged cucumbers will soon be broken, and the use of fresh bags can make it shelf life of 5 times.So, representing the interests of major supermarkets, the British retail consortium to the " The Guardian said that the implementation of plastic limit orders did save plastic but wasted food.
The media also questioned whether this policy is really rational? Bystander magazine pointed out that the government's policy should not be an instant rise, should take into account the complexity of the problem: the modern life is difficult to completely leave the plastic packaging, the production of alternatives may be Cause more environmental problems