Dáil gets pollution petition - Plastics: Act now on the crisis

One of the highlights of a great American film The Graduate occurs during a conversation between a young man who is wondering about his future after graduation and his father’s business partner who offers career advice to the worried youngster. It can be shortened as follows: “I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?” Older readers might remember the 1967 film fondly.

The older man was, we now know, right. There was a great future in plastics, more bountiful than anyone in the business then when milk was being delivered in glass bottles and fish and chips were wrapped in yesterday’s newspapers could have imagined. Its ubiquity is beyond measure. A global industry, its output is found not only in packaging but also in building and construction, electronics, aerospace, medicine, and transportation. One estimate suggests that 1m plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute.