BUYING PLASTIC WASTE BY THE KILO

Desperate times call for new ideas, some of which might sound stupid or ridiculous. As there seems to be no solution to the problem of what to do with plastic waste, I am proposing this new idea of buying and selling plastic waste by the kilo. Since there are too many types and sizes of plastic, it would be very difficult to assign a different buying and selling price to each type or size, hence the idea of using kilograms as a measure. Of course, this idea will not work if there is no market for plastic waste, so what needs to be done is to create the legal basis for the buying and selling. In effect, the legal basis will create the market for the plastic waste. In practical terms, it could mean giving incentives to companies that would buy these goods, including the existing junk shops. I do not have the data with me right now, but I think that the small sachet packaging of many household products could account for the bulk of waste plastic that are not collected and recycled. The grand irony here is that while the poor people may be the ones buying these sachets, they are the ones who suffer most from a polluted environment. Generally speaking, sachets are just part of a bigger category of waste known as one-way plastic. While some of these plastics may be recyclable, that could not happen if these are not collected in the first place. And the only way to ensure that these are collected is to assign an economic value to it. This could be a way to encourage recycling. IKE SENERES/2-8-24