We’ll have to shout ‘stop’ to non-bio plastics, or else...

Damien Enright discusses the major pollution problems we’re encountering right now and the consequences we’ll afce if we don’t clean up our act.

A few weeks ago, I asked my wife to buy me a 4-pack of branded razor blades when she was in Cork. Each blade, with its plastic frame, is the size of the two lower joints of my small finger. They ‘click’ on to a non-disposable, re-usable handle. The heads come in fours, in a plastic tray, in a plastic package.

The supermarket she went to didn’t have these ‘click-on’ razor heads. It had new style stem-and-razor units, sold in packets of three. The change was unnecessary. Worse, it meant that when the blade wore out, the handle had to be disposed of too.