Opinion: The new initiative to tax single-use plastic utensils is a first step in the right direction, but there is a lot we can do on this important issue even without waiting for the Ministry of Finance
Dr. Neta Lipman, Angle - Science and Environment News Agency
The "disposable" hazard must be reduced at the source, while dramatically reducing the production volume of plastic waste and avoiding its environmental and health effects. Photo: Brian Yurasits – Unsplash
A few days ago it was announced that the Ministry of Finance is examining the possibility of taxing the use of single-use utensils as part of the understanding that the intensive use of single-use plastic creates an environmental hazard with high treatment costs (and equally important, also a potential health hazard that may entail additional costs for the health system). "The use of single-use plastic utensils is a dramatic phenomenon in the world. Imposing such a tax should reduce the use of these tools and lead to the fact that we will live in a more valuable and cleaner society," said Shaul Meridor, head of the budget division at the Ministry of Finance.
As the CEO of an association that seeks to connect the scientific community in the field of ecology and environmental sciences with the general public and decision makers in Israel, I am well aware of the widespread negative effects of plastic, especially single-use plastic, on the environment and health. The annual global production of plastic in 2017, for example, reached about 350 million tons. With the exception of a small amount that is recycled (not all plastic can be recycled and even when an inferior raw material is obtained that usually cannot be recycled again) and an even smaller amount that was used to produce energy, all the rest of this plastic has become a waste nuisance and an environmental hazard that will accompany us and future generations during the next 500 years. The plastic cups, plates and cutlery that Israelis have become addicted to and even more so in recent years, an area with an annual turnover that has grown by 51 percent in the last 4 years are indeed called "disposable utensils", but their destructive effect on the environment continues for decades and even hundreds of years.
At the beginning of the summer we held our annual conference - a large international conference that lasted two days and where about 1,000 participants and guests from Israel and the world took part. This year it was especially important for us not only to discuss and talk about environmental issues inside the air-conditioned lecture halls, but also to show that it is possible to produce a multi-participant event that meets a high environmental standard. To that end, we created a single-use plastic-free environment using a few steps that turned out to be simpler and more cost-effective than we imagined before we started.
Thus, for example, as part of the conference, we provided our guests with a hot, tasty and nutritious lunch in a lunch box made from materials produced from by-products of the wheat industry. The box will be used by the participants of the conference in the future also at picnics, at the beach, at the ten-day meal at school and at lunch at the office.
The caterer brought the hot food from the kitchen packed inside the boxes so that we significantly reduced food waste at the conference. The conference participants received a thermal cup at the registration desks that they used during the conference and after it, and thus we avoided the unnecessary consumption of plastic drinking bottles. If an extra spoon or cup was needed to make a hot drink, we took care of perishable products that were sent to a special compost bin at the end of the conference.
It's true, we had to put some thought into finding the right production company, the right caterer and the right hostel, but at the end of the process we discovered that holding a "sustainable conference" can be not only experiential and good for the environment, but equally economical and good for the pocket.
For us, our annual conference served as an opportunity for us to conduct a large-scale experiment, at the end of which we discovered that it is possible to manage successfully even without the unnecessary consumption of single-use plastics. Therefore, I think that the idea put forward by the Ministry of Finance to tax single-use plastic products is a welcome first step towards solving the plastic crisis in Israel.
However, it is possible to aim higher and deeper. Even if this experimental balloon inflated by the Treasury survives the upheaval of the upcoming elections and withstands the heavy pressure exerted by various parties and representatives in Israeli society, whose livelihood is based to a significant extent on disposable utensils, the European Union, Canada and other countries have been promoting legislation in recent years within the framework of which disposable utensils are put out of use And their import will even be banned starting in 2021. This is actually the king's way - reduction at the source of the one-time hazard while dramatically reducing the production volume of plastic waste and avoiding its environmental and health effects.
The increased, and even excessive, use of disposable tools in Israel is one simple and direct example of how each of us can choose a different course of action and use it to help bring about positive change. It is certainly possible to give up the disposable tools - both for private use (does, for example, every sip of water at the gym require a new plastic cup?) and when organizing a large social or business event, as we proved at our conference.
It can start now, on the way to have coffee in the office kitchenette or on the way to the preparatory meeting for your next annual conference.
Dr. Neta Lipman is the CEO of the Israeli Association for Ecology and Environmental Sciences.
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People hate environmentalists, because there are some fools who invest billions of dollars to try to prevent any solution to the problem they created, whose proper name is the climate crisis, which is going to drown us all.
This is exactly why people hate environmentalists,
Instead of providing a solution that will benefit the environment and the well-being of the public, they want to educate him and lower his standard of living.
Biodegradable plastic: environmentally friendly, simple to use and does not need any behavioral and logistical adjustments for it.
To reduce the amount of plastic, you have to go back and use animal skin for sofas, clothes, shoes, etc!! not plastic.