That plastic is a virtual curse on the environment is almost a cliché by now. As certain parts of the world are slowly waking up to the danger, the anti-plastic campaign is gathering momentum in the US too.
Environment California reports that plastic bags, and other plastic refuse that end up in the ocean, kill up to one million sea creatures every year, such as birds, whales, seals, sea turtles, and others. And the number of marine mammals that die each year because of eating or being entanglement in plastic is estimated at 100,000 in the North Pacific Ocean alone.The Algalita Marine Research Foundation learned that "broken, degraded plastic pieces outweigh surface zooplankton in the central North Pacific by a factor of 6-1. That means six pounds of plastic for every single pound of zooplankton." Which means, when birds and sea animals or looking for food -- more often, they are finding plastic.
Since they made their appearance in the US in the late fifties, plastic shopping bags have almost literally swamped the country. The trend is mirrored elsewhere in the globe too.
According to Vincent Coob, founder of reusablebags.com, about 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year and are causing a global epidemic. The enormous demand for plastic bags ties into the surging global demand for oil -- plastic bags are made from ethylene, a petroleum byproduct. In the United States alone, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil is used annually to make plastic bags that Americans consume.
"Eliminating the use of disposable plastic bags is about more than just the environment," said Stephanie Barger, executive director of Earth Resource Foundation, "it is about health, sustainability, economics and focusing on what kind of quality of life we want."
A growing list of communities and countries are beginning to rethink their dependence on plastic bags. Already a complete or partial ban on the bags has been approved in Australia, South Africa, parts of India, China, Italy, Bangladesh and Taiwan.
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In Asia, the bags were banned in 2002 in Bangladesh after they were considered to be major factors in blocking sewers and drains and contributing to the severe flooding that devastated the country in 1988 and 1998.
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In the United States, Californians Against Waste estimate that Americans consume 84 billion plastic bags annually. The United States has been slow out of the gate in addressing the growing problem with plastic, but recently momentum has started for positive change.
Currently 30 rural Alaskan villages and towns have banned plastic bags. And in March the city of San Francisco became the first major municipality to ban the use of plastic bags, and nearby Oakland has followed suit, but not without controversy and litigation from industry groups.
Californians themselves discard about 19 billion bags each year. Over the years a growing coalition of environmental and consumer groups have been pushing for the state to take action.
This summer their work resulted in the passage of Assembly Bill 2449, which requires all supermarkets, pharmacies and other large retail stores to provide bins to help consumers recycle.
While this is a step in the right direction, many who have been aggressive on the issue, see the law as a disappointment. "It is basically just fluff -- most big stores already have the recycling bins," said Barger.
The Oakland legislation (which would go into effect in January) requires large markets to use bags made of recyclable paper or "bioplastics" -- bags made from compostable materials like cornstarch.
But a supermarket trade group calling itself the Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling has sued, saying that the ban in Oakland and San Francisco conflict with the state law requiring stores to have bag recycling programs.
"We are wasting energy fighting about disposable bags," said Barger, "when we should be putting energy into educating people about reusable bags."
The bioplastics may be made from natural products, but they also may contain a whole bunch of chemicals we don't know about, said Barger. And since most of them will come from corn or soy, they'll also mean more use of farmland laden with petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers and the same environmental and energy costs to truck the bags to market.
And, while the bags may not last a thousand years, they do break down slower than regular compost and could last up to six or eight months in the environment -- threatening wildlife just the same.
"Bioplastics is really just replacing one problem for another and doesn't address what is wrong with our throw-away culture," said Barger.
Which brings us to the "paper or plastic" question. The best answer is really neither. Paper bags have their own environmental cost. According to Vincent Coob, 14 million trees were cut down in 1999 to produce 10 billion grocery bags for Americans. The production and shipping of the bags also contributes to global warming and air pollution.
While some environmentalists dispute this, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that paper bags generate 70 percent more air pollutants and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags, largely because of the amount of energy needed in the recycling process.
The best alternative Barger and Early agree, are reusable bags and education -- lots of it. By purchasing a reusable cloth bag, consumers can save hundreds and perhaps thousands of plastic or paper bags.
If you can't afford one, then reusing a plastic bag for as long as possible and then recycling it (if you are lucky to live in California or the few other places that offer the service) is the best bet.
Source-Medindia
LIN/J
