There's an excellent article in the Guardian online about how a small town in Devon, England has banned plastic bags. Read more here. The town has its own Plastic Bag free website.
This initiative was inspired by the documentary Message in the Waves, which reveals the terrible problem of marine borne plastic waste in the Hawaiian islands.
I carry a fabric carrier bag in my handbag at all times and refuse plastic bags whenever I can. A fabric carrier lasts for years and means that you can avoid picking up plastic bags from all the shops you visit. I also try to avoid buying products with lots of plastic packaging.
Of course there are problems with paper waste too, but paper is biodegradable and certainly doesn't cause the types of problems for wildlife at sea as shown in Message in the Waves.
5 comments:
Hi Crafty. Many places don't give options besides plastics, and paper can be wasteful as well. Fabric bags are good, but the fibers are made from plants, so unless it's organic fibers, there is still a cost.
Everything is packaged in plastic because it's cheaper.
Rose
xo
Everything is overpackaged, Rose! Fabric bags of course come with a cost but one bag can last for years instead of being thrown away really quickly as most plastic bags are.
There has been lot of debate going on in Delhi, if those bags should be banned or not. The public wants those banned but the plastic mafia has taken over resisting the ban.
Law makers are the law breakers.
The plastic mafia - you're so right there, gautami!
I was reusing plastic bags that aren't ripped as garbage bags rather than buying them, so they were useful, but, depending on the store, too many bags are ripped and useless as garbage bags. I also have saved the sturdier plastic bags from department stores because they can be knit into bags that are reusable. We are switching to fabric bags of some type instead, though.
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