Today two vice-presidents in the European Parliament met to talk about the Plastic Pollution. Among the ideas of how to reduce our consumer use and the initiatives already taken inside the European Parliament (Vice-President Heidi Hautala talked about quitting the bottled mineral water and switching to potable tap water), the two politicians discussed the possible ideas for reducing the plastic waste, especially the single-use plastic (plastica usa e getta) by making it truly recyclable. Vice-President Jurki Katainen cited some numbers.

Apparently, less than 30% of the 25 million tones of plastic consumed in the European Union EACH YEAR is recycled. The rest ends up in the landfill.                                               If, as he claimed, we force producers to make plastic packaging according to the same standard, then we might be able to recycle much more of it instead of producing new material from the petrol (which only adds to the profit of oil companies). What is more, a lot depends on our personal choices as consumers. The EU cannot regulate every single aspect of our life, but we, as consumers, can put pressure on the producers, which is already happening in some countries like the UK where consumer campaigns made big chain restaurants or supermarkets rethink and change their policies about the plastic straws or plastic shoppers.

The whole video of this discussion here