PLASTIC BAGS

PLASTIC BAGS Brian Halweil, Worldwatch Institute

© 2004 Worldwatch Institute www.worldwatch.org

A Necessary Eyesore? Success stories ❖ The organizers of the 2000 Olympic

Games in Sydney, Australia, were able to
❖ In January 2002, the South African gov- collect 76 percent of the food waste gener-
P lastic shopping bags are among the most ubiquitous consumer items
on Earth. Their light weight, low cost, and water resistance make
them so convenient for carrying groceries, clothing, and other rou-
ernment required manufacturers to make
plastic bags more durable and more expen-
ated at the sports venues and athletes’ vil-
lage by using biodegradable utensils and
sive to discourage their disposal—prompt- plastic bags that composted as easily as the
tine purchases that it’s hard to imagine life without them. Weigh-
ing a 90-percent reduction in use. food and eliminated the need to separate
ing just a few grams and averaging a few millimeters in
the garbage.
thickness, plastic bags might seem thoroughly innocuous— ❖ Ireland instituted a 15¢-per-bag tax in
were it not for the sheer number produced. Factories March 2002, which led to a 95-percent
around the world churned out a whopping 4–5 reduction in use.
trillion of them in 2002, ranging from large
trash bags to thick shopping totes to flimsy ❖ In the early 1990s, the Ladakh Women’s
grocery sacks. Alliance and other citizens groups led a suc-
Compared with paper bags, producing cessful campaign to ban plastic bags in that
Indian province, where the first of May is
plastic ones uses less energy and water and
now celebrated as “Plastic Ban Day.”
Simple things
generates less air pollution and solid waste.
Plastic bags also take up less space in a landfill.
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Philip- you can do:
But many of these bags never make it to landfills; instead,
pines, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom also ✓ Think twice about taking a plastic bag if
have plans to ban or tax plastic bags. your purchase is small and easy to carry.
they go airborne after they are discarded—getting caught in fences, trees, even the throats of birds,
and clogging gutters, sewers, and waterways. To avoid these impacts, the best alternative is to carry ❖ Supermarkets around the world are vol- ✓ Keep canvas bags in your home, office,
and re-use your own durable cloth bags. untarily encouraging shoppers to forgo plas- and car so you always have them available
tic bags—or to bring their own bags—by when you go to the supermarket or other
offering a small per-bag refund or charging stores.
extra for plastic.
✱ North America and Western Europe account
✓ Ask your favorite stores to stop providing
Did you know…? ❖ Some manufacturers have introduced bags for free, or to offer a discount for not
for nearly 80 percent of plastic bag use—
✱ Plastic bags start as crude oil, natural gas, though the bags are increasingly common biodegradable or compostable plastic bags using the bags.
or other petrochemical derivatives, which
are transformed into chains of hydrogen
in developing countries as well. made from starches, polymers or poly-lactic ✓ Encourage your local politicians to introduce
acid, and no polyethylene—though these legislation taxing or banning plastic bags.
and carbon molecules known as polymers or ✱ A quarter of the plastic bags used in remain prohibitively expensive and account
polymer resin. After being heated, shaped, wealthy nations are now produced in Asia. for less than 1 percent of the market.
and cooled, the plastic is ready to be flat-
tened, sealed, punched, or printed on. ✱ Each year, Americans throw away some 100
billion polyethylene plastic bags. (Only 0.6
✱ The first plastic “baggies” for bread, sand- percent of plastic bags are recycled.)
wiches, fruits, and vegetables were intro-
duced in the United States in 1957. ✱ The Irish have been known to call the FOR MORE INFORMATION
Plastic trash bags started appearing in ever-present bags their “national flag”;
homes and along curbsides around the South Africans have dubbed them the
world by the late 1960s. “national flower.” ☛ International Biodegradable Products Initiative (www.bpiworld.org) is an association that
promotes the use of biodegradable polymeric materials, including bags.
☛ Grassroots Recycling Network (www.grrn.org) works to eliminate the waste of natural and
human resources—with the goal of achieving zero waste.

Challenge yourself and others: ☛ Film and Bag Federation (www.plasticbag.com) is an industry group that serves as the
“voice” of the plastic film and bag industry.
Try to go at least one week without accumulating any new plastic bags. If every shopper took just
one less bag each month, this could eliminate the waste of hundreds of millions of bags each year.

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