In a recent article, The Guardian highlights how we got into this global waste problem and who is responsible for getting us out.

Waste360 Staff, Staff

March 14, 2017

1 Min Read
Packaging has Created a Worldwide Waste Problem

Across the globe, members of the waste and recycling industry are trying to keep up with the massive amount of packaging waste that is littering our oceans and overflowing our landfills.

In a recent article, The Guardian highlights how we got into this global waste problem and who is responsible for getting us out.

The Guardian has more details:

In 2003, I was told by a restaurant owner on a Thai island that local fishermen used to wrap their lunch in banana leaves, which they would then casually toss overboard when done. That was OK, because the leaves decayed and the fish ate the scraps. But in the past decade, he said, while plastic wrap had rapidly replaced banana leaves, old habits had died hard – and that was why the beach was fringed with a crust of plastic. Beyond the merely unsightly, this plasticcongregates in continent-scale garbage gyres in our oceans, being eaten by plankton, then fish; then quite possibly it’ll reach your plate ...

This is a worldwide problem – we can’t point the finger at Thai fishermen. The west started this. The developing world justifiably yearns for its living standards and, with it, its unsustainable convenience culture.

Read the full story here.

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