Are we seeing the death of the plastic bag?
Now that would be wonderful.
The world uses more than 1.2 trillion plastic bags a year – an average of about 300 bags for every adult, or 1m bags used per minute. On average, we use each plastic bag for 12 minutes before discarding it. It then can last in the environment for decades.
Plastic bags do not biodegrade, they photodegrade – break down into smaller and smaller bits, contaminating soil, waterways and oceans, and entering the food chain when ingested by animals.
Places that have banned or discouraged the use of plastic bags include: Australia, Bangladesh, Ireland, Italy, Taiwan, Mumbai, Scotland, France, West Bengal, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Switzerland, Rwanda, Denmark, Germany, South Africa, California, Somalia, Botswana, Philippines.
There has recently been a lot of publicity in the UK about the decision of the town of Modbury in Devon to ban plastic bags. How did they do it? You can read an account here and check out the web site of the campaign here.
May 17th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Why can’t the Government do something useful for a change and just outlaw the b***dy things, which end up in my garden and pond. Personally I carry a shopping bag, but when deliveries come from shopping on the net, yes you guessed it, plastic bags.
May 20th, 2007 at 11:55 am
it is simply too luxury and wasteful to use plastic bags for mins and dispose them to degrade over 450 years.
to replace them, using paper bags is not the answer either, since they even waste more energy in production and create lots of pollution.
what about going back to the pure days, that people are having their basket, which will last for years or decades…
the years to come, the generations to come…
bless.