Get rid of plastic obseeeion

"Get rid of plastic obsession" by a writer in the SCMP newspaper

The recent correspondence about plastic bags is not really about plastic bags at all. The ubiquitous bags are symbolic of wider environmental degradation and our blind and arrogant unwillingness to do something about it.

Plastic shopping bags are unnecessary, period. With a little forethought we can dispense with them. The have come to symbolise the unpalatable truth that if we are too lazy and self-absorbed to forgo something devastating to our children's future that we can easily prevent with no cost or effort, then what hope for things plastic that might cause us a little inconvenience?

We buy billions of plastic water bottles every hour, use them for a few minutes and cast them into a landfill where they will remain for millions of years. Pretty well all the plastic produced since its development more than 60 years ago is still with us, and the North Pacific vortex, an area the size of Texas, contains an estimated 3 million tonnes of the stuff. Our oceans are littered with it, killing seabirds and the most of the already endangered ocean life that the Japanese aren't busy harpooning. Almost a;; children's toys are plastic, millions of tonnes that are used for a few months and thrown away.

It might be a good start for parents to start educating the next generation by refusing to buy plastic toys; parents win, kids win, the planet wins.

Peter Sherwood, Discovery Bay."