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2018 Statistic of the Year: 90.5 Percent of Plastic Waste Has Never Been Recycled (bbc.com)
Two of 2018's best statistics from the Royal Statistical Society are about the environment. "The winning international statistic of the year was 90.5% -- the proportion of plastic waste that has never been recycled," reports the BBC. "And in the UK category, the top stat was 27.8% -- the highest percentage of all electricity which was generated by solar power." From the report: A panel of judges picked the two winners, along with several highly commended statistics, from more than 200 nominations. Entries for 2018 were submitted earlier this year. Judges on the panel included Dame Jil Matheson, former national statistician -- the top adviser to the government on official statistics, as well as RSS president Sir David Spiegelhalter, BBC home editor Mark Easton and the Guardian's U.S. data editor Mona Chalabi.
The environment and plastic waste has repeatedly made headlines in 2018, and "single-use" -- referring to plastic waste -- was named the word of the year. Other highly commended statistics include:
$1.3 billion: the amount lost from the value of Snapchat within a day after Kylie Jenner tweeted: "Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore?"
85.9%: the proportion of British trains that ran on time -- the lowest for more than a decade
40%: the percentage of Russian men who do not live to the age of 65
64,946: the number of measles cases in Europe from November 2017 to October 2018
82%: the percentage of all British retail shopping that is still in-store rather than online
16.7%: the percentage reduction of the number of Jaffa Cakes in the McVities' Christmas tube
6.4%: the percentage of female executive directors within FTSE 250 companies
The environment and plastic waste has repeatedly made headlines in 2018, and "single-use" -- referring to plastic waste -- was named the word of the year. Other highly commended statistics include:
$1.3 billion: the amount lost from the value of Snapchat within a day after Kylie Jenner tweeted: "Sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore?"
85.9%: the proportion of British trains that ran on time -- the lowest for more than a decade
40%: the percentage of Russian men who do not live to the age of 65
64,946: the number of measles cases in Europe from November 2017 to October 2018
82%: the percentage of all British retail shopping that is still in-store rather than online
16.7%: the percentage reduction of the number of Jaffa Cakes in the McVities' Christmas tube
6.4%: the percentage of female executive directors within FTSE 250 companies
Obvious trollbait is obvious.
Yes, the article is trollbait.
Nice to know the BBC is continuing the divisive, intersectional, fundamentally racist "progressive" PC tradition, "Asteroid will destroy Earth, women and minorities most impacted!" stories.
I like to think I'm a fairly environmental conscience person but I can't bring myself to care about most plastic waste. As long as it's properly disposed of in a landfill I just don't care. We have enough space for landfill to last at least a couple hundred years and at that point we'll probably be disintegrating our trash..
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
We are. And we're deathly afraid of the time when the average Chinese has the same environmental footprint the average American has.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Well it is too bad most of the discussion on these topics goes into the Stupid Oversimplification category and/or just being Cruel and Heartless, and if the topic is really hard to swallow, then we go into conspiracy theory how it is a made up problem by the "Other"
We have these problems that shouldn't be ignored, however people don't want to hear about the side effects that can happen from their view. However we need to fully understand these complex problems to help work out a solution. I doubt for problems so large and complex there are going to be many Win-Win solutions. However we can get a Win and a mitigated lost where the value of the win is greater then the lost. But we can't just discredit the people who will be effected by such a solution.
Lets say we switch for our morning coffee Styrofoam cup, to a paper cup, much greener solution, but the coffee cools down quicker, and it is hot to hold the cup. So lets add that corrugated ring to make the cup easier to hold. We still get a greener solution, and we lost a cup that will keep coffee hotter for longer, but at least we solved the too hot to hold. So it is a mitigated lost, also being that most people will drink their coffee before it gets too cold anyways and the difference between the two will effect a smaller number of people. It isn't a Win-Win but we looked at the solutions and found that there were flaws, some being more serious then others, so we fixed what we can to accommodate the losses, and we end up with a net benefit solution.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
...the point is to leverage western guilt into recycling their water bottles or some shit.
But isn't the BULK of ocean plastic waste pollution (90%+) coming from 10 rivers? (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stemming-the-plastic-tide-10-rivers-contribute-most-of-the-plastic-in-the-oceans/)
2 are in Africa, 8 are Asian. The Yangtze alone dumps more than all the other rivers/sources combined.
Let's be objective then: wealthy suburban Starbucks customers could literally throw every scrap of plastic they use into the ocean directly, and they wouldn't even tickle the needle vs the megatonnage pouring from these 10 rivers. Carry all the stupid stainless-steel straws you like, you're at least giving people an idea of a cheap dumb gift they can give you at Christmas...but you're not doing *anything* for the environment.
So these sorts of public flagellation programs - if they're produced in English, basically - amount to nothing more than virtue-signaling guilt-assuagement.
-Styopa
we've been shipping our plastic waste to China? At least until recently. Given how poverty stricken those nations are I somehow doubt they're generating that much waste plastic themselves.
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No, they're the ones that beat up random people while throwing out racial slurs.
https://www.phillymag.com/welc...