Hammond, Britain’s finance minister, recently gave up on the wind, saying he would consider taxing disposable plastic products.
Allegedly devoted to the natural and scientific exploration of the production of the program, the grandfather David Aydenberg convinced the Queen to first prohibit the use of disposable plastic straws on his private site. The reason why Aidenbourg had this The idea, due to the shock of the tragic marine trash being plagued by plastic waste.
The ban on plastics has become a hot spot, reflecting the fact that the green revolution in advanced economies is almost in synch with the Internet information technology revolution. The use of energy and environmentally friendly materials, although less popular than the Internet, is more relevant to the future of this world. Many developed countries The share of new energy in energy consumption is already quite high, and some developed countries have clearly given timetable for the elimination of fossil fuel vehicles.
According to surveys, the forest coverage rate in some European countries has rebounded in the last decade or two. For example, the forest coverage rate in Ireland has been declining for quite a long time after the Industrial Revolution. Before and after Irish independence in the 1920s, there was only about 1%. Today, this number is already close to 11%. The target set by Ireland is to make this number 18% in 2046. The Economist reported that in terms of the rebound of forest cover in developed countries , Ireland, where high-quality pasture stretches, is not alone. France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, and some Central and Eastern European countries also have this trend.
In October 2015, England began charging 5 pence for plastic bags in supermarkets and other places. According to data released by the government, in the six months after the implementation of the Act, the use of plastic bags in seven major supermarkets in the UK was 640 million. Prior to the implementation of the Act, according to charity estimates, the seven supermarkets used 7.64 billion plastic bags throughout 2014.
Nowadays shopping in UK supermarkets, plastic bag usage fees are generally around 10 pence, but they can often be recycled. Many families and students go to supermarkets and may bring their own used plastic bags. However, some small retail vendors will still Providing free plastic bags. For this reason, some environmental groups are promoting the inclusion of small street vendors in plastic bags.
Of course, the pace of bans will not stop there. Due to the habit of eating fast food and drinking coffee in Europe and the United States, the use of disposable lunch boxes and coffee cups is also very alarming. Although most fast food chains have changed their lunch boxes to recyclable materials, Many coffee cups have been replaced by paper cups. However, the use of plastic cups is still very impressive. In particular, coffee cup lids and drinking straws make plastic products more convenient to use. Therefore, they are still very common, and used plastic straws are almost always discarded. This is also one of the main goals of the environmental protection organizations to promote bans, and it may also be the origin of the Queen's plastic ban. They think that this can be completely replaced by degradable materials.
Another area of focus is the packaging of online shopping. With Internet shopping becoming more and more common, this is becoming a new challenge. In addition, the United Kingdom is still brewing the use of plastic particles in banned cosmetics. Many cosmetics are currently used as a matte material. .
The reason why the use of plastics causes such troubles is also the economic cost factor. According to the publicly estimated figures, the use of plastic bags in the world is about 1 trillion annually. Another estimate from San Francisco shows that once the plastic bags are used, Cleaning up costs 17 cents each for public finances. As for plastic bottles, about 200 billion of them are used each year in the world, and manufacturing costs 50 million barrels of crude oil. Although some of them are recycled, most of them go to landfills.
However, some think tanks believe that plastics should not be exterminated for the time being. For example, some food packaging will help extend shelf life. In fact, this may actually be beneficial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector. The most important thing is to replace as much as possible and strengthen the recycling system. , Increase the proportion of recycling and recycling.