The European Commission’s proposal to ban plastic straws, plates, cutlery, and drink stirrers, and slash the consumption of many other single-use products, is more than just a nice, novel idea. It’s a step urgently needed from every country — as plastic trash pours into the oceans at the rate of almost 9 million tons a year. The flood of trash is killing fish, turtles, seals, coral, and birds, and getting into the seafood people eat. If no action is taken, over the coming decade it stands to increase tenfold. The problem stems from the sheer volume of plastic in existence — more than 9 billion tons, most of it produced since 2000 — and from humanity’s haphazard efforts to dispose of it. Three-fourths of plastic produced goes to waste, and less than a tenth of that gets recycled, though Europe does a better job than the global average, recycling nearly 30%.

Stemming the tide of plastic pollution. (2018, July 5). BusinessWorld, p. S1/7.