Climate change and the battle against global warming are impacting more and more on the lives of ordinary people. In the face of such a global problem they feel powerless to do anything significant about it. There is one area where ordinary people can make an extraordinary contribution, and that is in their shopping habits, specifically in their use of plastic shopping bags. This ubiquitous item has a huge environmental impact and a switch to a more eco friendly shopping habit can have a large beneficial effect on greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel usage.
Plastic Shopping Bag Use
Disposable plastic shopping bags were introduced in the 70s and 80s and quickly took over from the paper and cloth. Due to the reticence of the plastics industry in issuing overall statistics, reliable figures on plastic bag usage are difficult to come by. According to Vincent Cobb, founder of reusablebags.com, in the "Top Facts - Consumption" section of his website states "500 billion to 1 trillion bags are used worldwide every year." They also quote in their "Top Facts Section figures from the U.S. EPA stating that "over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year." The Brisbane Times of Australia, in a report dated March the 20th 2008 stated "that there were nearly 5 billion plastic bags used there in 2007." The U.K Guardian, in a report dated January the 8th quoted the China Daily website, an official Chinese English language portal, as saying "3 billion plastic bags are used daily in China."
Environmental Impact of Plastic Bags
Because of the huge number of plastic bags used worldwide, the negative environmental impact is considerable. Plastic bags impact on the environment in a number of different ways.
- They are not biodegradable. Reusablebags.com in their "Top Facts - Environmental Impact " section says "Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest."
- They are made from fossil fuel. “Californians Against Waste” estimates that 12 million barrels of oil are used annually to produce the plastic bags used in the USA alone. Extrapolated world wide this is a huge waste of precious fossil fuel and adds considerably to the world’s man made greenhouse gas emissions.
- They are difficult to recycle. The New England EPA says, “Research from 2000 shows 20 percent of paper bags were recycled, while one percent of plastic bags were recycled.” Resuablebags.com in the "Top Facts Section" of their website estimates that “8 billion pounds of plastic bags, wraps and sacks enter the waste stream every year in the US alone”
Reducing the Environmental Impact of Plastic Bags
Many countries, states, cities and organizations are now beginning to enforce a green policy in relation to plastic bag use.
- In March 2001 the Republic of Ireland introduced a levy on plastic bags of 15 cents per bag. A report, published on April the 24th 2007 in the website of Ireland’s Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government shows that plastic bag consumption dropped from 1.2 billion bags a year to less than 100 million bags and 18 million liters of oil has been saved annually.
- China has announced a ban on production of ultra-thin bags, forbidding their use in supermarkets and shops from June 1, 2008.
- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted last week to outlaw plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets and chain pharmacies. The stores are encouraged to use bags made of recyclable paper, which can biodegrade in about a month.
- Ikea, Wal-Mart and many other stores are introducing schemes to cut back on the use of plastic bags or are offering free or inexpensive reusable bags.
- Many other countries, including Canada, Australia and the UK, are looking at proposals to encourage more eco friendly shopping habits.
Irrespective of the presence of taxes, bans or other restrictions on the use of plastic bags, each individual person can make a personal decision to adopt a more eco friendly habit of shopping by using reusable bags. Although such a decision may be personal, should enough people make it, the effect would be global.
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