Being Green - 12 January 2018
--:--
PLASTICS, MINING, AND ZUMA IN ORBIT
The first week or two of a new year seems to bring out some bizarre stories, at least you could use that term. Perhaps it is something to do with the disruptions of the so-called Festive Season. Journalists and their media are not exempt obviously – in fact it’s usually called the silly season by the cynics. So here goes – a round-up of some things that caught my eye this week.
The tide seems be turning against booming plastic-packaging manufacturing and the horrendous pollution problems threatening biodiversity, particularly in the oceans but also on land. Not that environmentalists haven’t been warning anyone that would listen for decades already.
Now British Prime Minister Theresa May has weighed in with a major policy announcement that promises to clamp down on unnecessary plastic proliferation, and a commitment to outlaw certain forms of particularly single-use plastic by 2042. Well that date is way in the future, and whether a Tory government will be around then is problematic, but at least there are good intentions - it’s a start.
More cynical critics of Mrs May and her Government are saying that many of the proposals are not enforceable in law and are too vague. Meanwhile the Brits now have to fork out a 5p levy (about 60cents) on plastic supermarket bags, which is causing some groans. Now here in South Africa that plastic-bag regulation has been in force for over 20 years, but does it really work? Surveys have been done, but it’s difficult to get hard data on the level of plastic-bag pollution. And what happened to our much vaunted fund that was supposed to be created out of the plastic-bag levy to encourage recycling? By 2016 over R1.1billion had been accumulated in this fund, but it’s not ‘ring-fenced’ and just goes into the National Revenue. Some money has found its way into government environment projects – including Working on Fire and Working on Water.
The first week or two of a new year seems to bring out some bizarre stories, at least you could use that term. Perhaps it is something to do with the disruptions of the so-called Festive Season. Journalists and their media are not exempt obviously – in fact it’s usually called the silly season by the cynics. So here goes – a round-up of some things that caught my eye this week.
The tide seems be turning against booming plastic-packaging manufacturing and the horrendous pollution problems threatening biodiversity, particularly in the oceans but also on land. Not that environmentalists haven’t been warning anyone that would listen for decades already.
Now British Prime Minister Theresa May has weighed in with a major policy announcement that promises to clamp down on unnecessary plastic proliferation, and a commitment to outlaw certain forms of particularly single-use plastic by 2042. Well that date is way in the future, and whether a Tory government will be around then is problematic, but at least there are good intentions - it’s a start.
More cynical critics of Mrs May and her Government are saying that many of the proposals are not enforceable in law and are too vague. Meanwhile the Brits now have to fork out a 5p levy (about 60cents) on plastic supermarket bags, which is causing some groans. Now here in South Africa that plastic-bag regulation has been in force for over 20 years, but does it really work? Surveys have been done, but it’s difficult to get hard data on the level of plastic-bag pollution. And what happened to our much vaunted fund that was supposed to be created out of the plastic-bag levy to encourage recycling? By 2016 over R1.1billion had been accumulated in this fund, but it’s not ‘ring-fenced’ and just goes into the National Revenue. Some money has found its way into government environment projects – including Working on Fire and Working on Water.
