That New Zealand should become plastic bag free

pilotfever Public Seen by 87

Problems associated with plastic bags include use of non-renewable resources (such as crude oil, gas and coal), disposal, and environmental impacts.

A car could drive about 11 metres on the amount of petroleum used to make a single plastic bag.
In Australia alone 6 billion HDPE bags were used in 2002. Usage reduced to 5.6 billion in 2004, and 3.9 billion in 2007. Plastic bags can block drains, trap birds and kill livestock. The World Wide Fund for Nature has estimated that over 100,000 whales, seals, and turtles die every year as a result of eating or being trapped by plastic bags. In India, an estimated number of 20 cows die per day as a result of ingesting plastic bags and having their digestive systems clogged by the bags. It’s is also very common across Africa to have sewers and drain systems clogged by bags which cause severe cases of malaria due to the increased population of mosquitoes that live on the flooded sewers. The term white pollution has been coined to describe the local and global effects of discarded plastic bags upon the environment.

Governments all over the world have taken action to either ban the sale of lightweight bags, charge customers for lightweight bags or generate taxes from the stores who sell them. Major countries such as South Africa, China, Taiwan and Macedonia have a total ban on the bag.
Source: Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_lightweight_plastic_bags

Old game solutions (reward for recycling plastic bag) need to be replaced with Game Changing solutions (ban the plastic bag).

http://storyofstuff.org/

How do we identify a real solution?
Give people more power
Open peoples eyes to truth of happiness
Account for all the costs
Lessen the wealth gap

fuck you assholes Fri 13 Jun 2014 5:07AM

I'd support replacing plastic bags with something biodegradable, because we use our plastic shopping bags as garbage bags.

Deleted account Fri 13 Jun 2014 5:37AM

I despise plastic and think it should be banned ...............but if it is replaced with something that is as harmful to the environment ....then why replace it? ..................my point is if you say replace it with paper bags ....but you are chopping down some country's native forrest then that is not a good thing ........................the whole picture needs to be looked at ....................plantation paper bags ......more buses ..trains .....electric cars ......organic farming ect ect ect ...

Colin Gale Fri 13 Jun 2014 6:18AM

What would i put my dogs poop into then?

Rangi Kemara Fri 13 Jun 2014 6:36AM

@colingale perhaps there is a product waiting to be invented. Im thinking plastic free doggie poop bags made from sterilised, recycled doggie poop.

Seriously though, to get traction on this, you need solid alternatives for shopping bags and council mandated rubbish bags. Once thats done, noone will miss plastic bags.

Marc Whinery Fri 13 Jun 2014 6:52AM

Plastic bags are better for the environment. They take up less space in the landfill. They are recyclable. They are made from what's essentially waste from making gasoline, so they don't require any extra oil pumped from the ground to make them.

And comparing a paper and plastic bags, both are recyclable, and neither will degrade in a landfill (most landfills are anaerobic, and the paper won't degrade substantially in an anaerobic environment.

Plastic is better for the environment than paper. And like someone else mentioned there will always be places where plastic is the best solution, such as the dog poop bags.

Kenneth Kopelson Fri 13 Jun 2014 7:12AM

Maybe we here in NZ should put our inventiveness to create something here that is like this product:

http://biogreenproducts.biz/

Apparently, it's an additive that makes plastic bags so they quickly biodegrade in anaerobic landfills...

Darius Windarc Sat 14 Jun 2014 2:17AM

Paper bags wouldn't be an issue if they were strong enough to be used more than once, probably would be good if they were made with a water proof interior so they could be used as rubbish bags. We could start up a cleaner greener industry of paper bag making using hemp, bamboo, ricegrass etc... Plants that grow very quickly and make strong products.