Earthwatching’s Weblog

Finally, one of the biggest culprits of landfills is taking a step towards being obsolete.  The carrier bag, a blot on the landscape in every Country in the world may well be taking a dive.  Some of the largest and influential retailers in the UK called for the banning of Plastic bags, but with baby steps, firstly by charging for them.  A statement by the UK Government’s Department of the Environment began with “UK retailers have agreed to reduce the overall environmental impact of their carrier bags by 25% by the end of 2008″. Read it here.

Many American grocery retailers, such as COSTCO, have been using paper sacks all along for customers’ purchases, so why did the plastic bag grip the UK and the world so much?  As usual it comes down to consumer demand, initially taking off in the early 70′s when the UK really took off from the industrial period to the technological period.  This is when we really saw a trend start in consumer waste and so it seems, over manufacturing.  It was when more and more of our trading left the native shores and importing of cheaper goods from places like Asia became more common.  

When Marks & Spencer first issued it’s press release on the hope of reducing consumer use of plastic bags by charging, it was not long for other supermarkets and large chains to follow suit.  Lidl and Aldi have always done this, so its not a new concept, but due to the UK public being so pleased with this notion, it was only days that the Prime Minister brought out his press release stating how great this was and to the benefit of the public advancement towards reducing consumer waste.  He almost made it sound like it was his idea – this is typical of our piggy-back-riding government. See Here.

Some facts about plastic bags - 

One of the worlds biggest producers of plastic carrier bags – China – made noises late 2007/early 2008 that they were going to cease production of the manufacture of plastic bags so to clean up the litter in time for the 2008 Olympics.  A good step in the right direction, but considering a majority of people cannot breathe in the major cities of China without choking, I think they have more pressing things to curb before plastic – see article here.  This is one of the main reasons that many companies world wide are trying to reduce consumer usage of plastic bags, there may well be a shortage very soon. 

• The carrier bag, if you have to use them, can be reused in simple ways.  So many are used from the supermarket and straight in the bin, but why not reuse it the next few trips to the supermarket or shops?
• There are many supermarkets that offer a recycling centre for you to dump all your carrier bags, so many people have a cupboard under the sink HEAVING with carrier bags as they feel guilty throwing them away, so don’t, take them to your nearest supermarket and let them take care of that.  From what I have researched, these bags are made into plastic pellets and reused by ethical companies to make many other new plastic items.
• Use them to split your weekly kerbside recycling.
• Use them to hold un-compostable food waste such as cooked meat to avoid a smelly dustbin>
• Use them to store muddy shoes or boots, or as seen as many muddy festivals, use them over your footwear to keep your feet dry.
• Use them to carry books to school – for the fashion conscious, many high street fashion chains have plastic bags so that you don’t look so much of a dweeb with a tesco bag
• Use as packing material for shipping (you could include a note asking the recipient to further reuse or recycle the bags)
• Wrap them around the knees when you are kneeling down doing the gardening, keeps your knees clean.
• No time to make an emergency pre-party run for wrapping paper? Riffle through your bags to find the prettiest and most colorful — or just ones without writing. Triple-bag the gift, then tie all three sets of handles into a knot. Cut the tops of the loops and fan the pieces out to make a plume.
• 
• Crumple bags to fill the bottom of a large pot that’s too deep for your plant (but be sure not to cover the drainage hole, if it has one). You can cut down on the amount of potting soil needed, and since plastic packs less heft than dirt, you’ll be able to move a big planter around with a bit less grunting.

DEGRADABLE BAGS

The bags are just as strong as conventional plastic bags, but are programmed to have a usable life of 18 months. After this, the structure starts to weaken as the bags begin to degrade. The end result is that the plastic loses all of the water and gas within its structure to leave minerals that are compatible with soil.
A UK website claims that their bags are manufactured to be earth friendly.  Read all about it here.

SO WHAT NOW!

Taken from Recycle Now, these are the recommendations for shopping -