The plague of modern civilization is single-use plastic, which is used everywhere in everyday life. In Belarus, polymer waste makes 280,000 tons a year, which means about 25 kilograms per person. How can we cope with this environmental problem? Our country has its own approach to solving the problem. Belarus is gradually phasing out plastic, replacing it with environmentally friendly materials. Our strategy is going in stages without harm either to business or consumers. Take, for example, the catering industry. Last year our manufacturers could only cover 5% of the market demand for paper cups. Today, they already produce almost the entire line of devices and utensils.
Many cafes have already refused plastic, and visitors support the green trend. To help businesses, the Ministry of Anti-Monopoly Regulation and Trade has compiled a list of addresses on its website, where you can apply for packaging.
As an option to replace disposable and reusable utensil, some cafes offer to drink coffee in cups. The main thing is to have a dishwasher. In general, already more than 40 % of public catering establishments do without plastic at all.
Producers have welcomed the course towards ecology. They assure that there will be enough packaging for everyone. Grodno Glassworks is one of the four plants in the country that offers bottles to both domestic and foreign manufacturers. Up to 30% of production is shipped form there. Only in recent years, the production volumes have increased sixfold. And these days they start building an essentially new glass factory, where they will produce up to 250 million glass bottles a year.
Belarus plans to completely abandon the use of plastic in public catering by 2023. The scale of mountains of garbage that does not decompose can be judged by disposable cups. At least 200 million of them are used per year.
