ACCORDING to the compilers of the Collins Dictionary the word of the year in 2018 was single-use.
Most of us will have seen David Attenborough’s seminal programme on the oceans of planet Earth choked with plastics that have done the job for which they were designed, but now they are around to haunt us for generations to come. The descriptor single-use, however, doesn’t just apply to plastic cups and straws. It has overtaken us in other industries and commercial arenas. Food packaging and coff ee pods are being poured into our landfill sites. Some items of clothing are now bought for one occasion and never used again. Recently on a flight with a well known airline I was issued with single use earphones! Life can’t go on like this and, of course, more critical than disposable earphones is the airline travel that brought these earphones to the market.