It’s not exactly an easy thing to solve. Apparently few plastics are truly recyclable, and even the smallest amount of contamination can totally screw up many plastic products. An expert in plastics (can’t remember the source) said that in many cases plastic waste is so damaging to animal life, and the recycling industry is so corrupted that an enormous amount of plastic shipped overseas simply gets tossed overboard. They actually recommend incinerating it and using the heat to generate power or community heating. Other than that, ban certain plastics and try to reduce usage overall. Pre-1950s soda fountains and reusable drinks bottles anyone? Imagine taking a few bottles to your local supermarket, putting them through a rinser and then filling them with your choice of fizzy sugary crap. Much better than selling a million single-use plastic bottles of the awful stuff every day.

But that’s not even desirable in some cases. Total removal of plastics would increase food spoilage, which is an enormous contributor to climate change. Consider the energy required to plant, fertilize, harvest and transport a red pepper: all that energy and effort is wasted if the product gets damaged en route to your local supermarket.

And while glass is indeed recyclable, that’s extremely energy intensive.

I do wonder about these targets. Are we measuring the right things? CO² emissions and exported plastic waste are the only two important metrics here, as far as I’m concerned.