Pirate's Cove

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Planet’s addiction to plastic bottles ‘as dangerous as climate change’

A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute and the number will jump another 20% by 2021, creating an environmental crisis some campaigners predict will be as serious as climate change. EURACTIV’s partner The Guardian reports.

New figures obtained by The Guardian reveal the surge in usage of plastic bottles, more than half a trillion of which will be sold annually by the end of the decade.

The demand, equivalent to about 20,000 bottles being bought every second, is driven by an apparently insatiable desire for bottled water and the spread of a western, urbanised “on the go” culture to China and the Asia Pacific region.

By 2021 this will increase to 583.3bn, according to the most up-to-date estimates from Euromonitor International’s global packaging trends report.

Most plastic bottles used for soft drinks and water are made from polyethylene terephthalate (Pet), which is highly recyclable. But as their use soars across the globe, efforts to collect and recycle the bottles to keep them from polluting the oceans, are failing to keep up.

Now, here are my issues: first, plastic getting into the environment in this manner is a real environmental concern. I’ve harped about this many times. People just throw their plastic bottles, bags, etc out, and besides despoiling the landscape and waterways, they create an environmental mess (it’s well worth reading the rest of the article).

Second, why the need to even mention ‘climate change’? In fact, in the article itself, climate change is only mentioned once, in relation to the headline. Yet, the proliferation of plastic pollution is a real issue, a read danger, and it doesn’t help in making the comparison. It can mean people simply tune out when read the headline.