It's in the Bag

The solution to plastic bag pollution

They’re cheap and convenient and everywhere you look, but what is the real cost of plastic bags?

Around 500 000 000 000 (yes five-hundred-billion!) bags are used annually worldwide. Most discarded bags end up in landfill where they take 300 years to photodegrade into tiny toxic particles. Although they can be recycled, fewer than 0.5% actually find their way into a recycling plant. The World’s oceans are filled with thousands of tons of plastic particles and every year about 100 000 marine animals die from plastic pollution. Sea turtles, fish, and marine birds are especially vulnerable to plastic pollution and they normally die of slow starvation after ingesting plastic, or drown after becoming tangled in bags and other debris. There are a number of ways to minimize the effects of plastic pollution. Using biodegradable bags is a start. Petroleum based biodegradable bags are an improvement but they release methane (a greenhouse gas) as they break down. Some stores use corn-based biodegradable bags that are ideal but not widely used due to their additional cost. Some countries such as Ireland imposed heavy taxes on plastic bags to successfully discourage their use. For the smart shopper the best solution is to avoid plastic bags and excessive packaging where possible and reuse a fabric bag to carry groceries. Do you use plastic bags? Would you consider an alternative? Should shoppers pay more for plastic bags?