http://www.sweep-net.org/reducing-plastic-waste-through

28 February 2014
Clara Salina

Reducing plastic waste through barcode control: 60 year old material has
already fully polluted our Planet

The following wants to be a concrete proposal to scientists and
politicians to reduce plastic waste. It is offered for public discussion.

We all agree on one point: we must stop plastic pollution. Our oceans
cannot afford it any longer: mammals and birds are dying, fishes are
eating million of pieces of micro plastic that eventually reach our food
and the Pacific Plastic Garbage Patch`s insects are changing the natural
environment.

After many failed attempts to raise awareness about plastic pollution
among friends and colleagues, trying to demonstrate the evidence of the
existence of an environmental enemy hidden behind plastic, I realized
that a possible solution which can bring forward a real change is revert
the general paradigm of plastic waste collection.

Plastic material has two sides to it: a friendly one, giving us
facilities and an incredible quantity of useful devices, inert and not
dangerous. And a less friendly one, which appears only after having used
it, too often for only a few minutes, when it becomes waste material.

Unfortunately any problem plastic provokes is too far from our daily
life and generally people understand only what they make experience of.

This is the reason why this problem must be solved by governments?
revolutionary decisions: there probably won?t be any short period change
or demand bottom up, as everyday life facts show that awareness among
people has not been raised enough. Governments must be the authors of
change.

The proposal is simple.