PerspectivesOnPlastic

I vastly prefer soya milk, but only wholebean organic since the taste of other soya milks doesn't suit.   And it comes in cartons which I have been putting in my recycling box... but reading about cardboard cups with plastic linings, I wonder if I am doing the right thing.  On the side of my Alpro Soya carton it says 'buying this Tetra Pak (R) carton helps you care for the world's forests'. That's good... but what about the oceans and the planet generally. I have a look at the Alpo website (see  https://www.alpro.com/uk/faq/detail/can-alpro-packs-be-recycled )  and it says... Yes. Tetra Pak® cartons are a lightweight, low resource, energy-saving form of packaging, designed to have minimum impact on the environment throughout their life. It is the only liquid food packaging made principally from a renewable resource – wood. The Tetra Pak® carton used for our products is designed to provide an energy efficient, airtight and safe m...

So it is.   Footage of albatross feeding plastic waste to their young and photographs of vast areas of ocean littered in plastic are very distressing.  The recent news that disposable cardboard cups are lined with tricky-to-recycle plastic is dispiriting. And, as a prolific consumer of the things, the news that even tea-bags contain plastic stops me in my tracks. What to do? Not all plastic is bad, and some is clearly essential, but I am ignorant about the issue. I vaguely understand the terms 'recyclable' and 'one-use', but I am not confident about exactly what comprises what... and I am sure I can reduce my use. So, I am starting this blog to record my progress answering three areas of question: 1. What exactly am I buying/using under the heading of plastics? 2. Can what I buy and use be recycled... and is it? 3. Are there alternatives, primarily for the stuff that can't be recycled. There is a letter in today's Sunday Times, which suggests ...