Study confirms Altria, Philip Morris International, Danone, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are worst offenders
Fewer than 60 multinationals are responsible for more than half of the world’s plastic pollution, with six responsible for a quarter of that, based on the findings of a piece of research published on Wednesday.
The researchers concluded that for every percentage increase in plastic produced, there was an equivalent increase in plastic pollution in the environment.
“Production really is pollution,” says one of the study’s authors, Lisa Erdle, director of science at the non-profit The 5 Gyres Institute.
An international team of volunteers collected and surveyed more than 1,870,000 items of plastic waste across 84 countries over five years: the bulk of the rubbish collected was single-use packaging for food, beverage, and tobacco products.
I get your point about PET bottles needing less energy to make and transport, but that is only looking at the energy use and co2 pollution.
You absolutely right there, but the article focuses on microplastics, another huge issue.
Is the microplastics issue worse than the co2 issue?
I am tempted to say “depends”, we don’t fully know the health impact of being exposed to microplastics constantly. We don’t know the long term effects of a planet being covered in microplastics, but it doesn’t look brilliant.
So you can’t say thay PET is outright better for the environment than glass.
PET is better in some ways, glass it better in others, which will win, no idea…
The real issue is: single servings are wasteful. If you make more food at home you’ll save money, eat healthier, and use less plastic and energy.
I think you have to hike through largely untouched forests to a very remote lake to find sharp glass shards scattered across the little beach to realize that glass maybe isn’t the most environmentally-sound magic-solution that some people would like to think. It can be just as (and much worse) strong at causing ecological catastrophies that are incredibly expensive to clean up.
The symptoms are: littered streets, nature.
The causes: fuckfaced fuckwads for people. In all areas of society.