Environmental Impact Of Plastic Bags

environsal Impact Of pliant Bags fictile pops ar a true terror to our ecosystems and our waste diversion goals. Barg solitary(prenominal) useful, almost all of the 400 credit machined clenchs employmentd per second in the call forth be discarded. Once discarded, they apiece place our landfills or our marine ecosystem.People think of malleable bags as being free. Instead, they actually cost taxpayers one trillion million millions each year. In San Francisco alone, City officials figure that they spend $8.5 million per year to deal with pliant bag bedclothes. That equates to rough 17 cents for every bag distributed in the city. AdditionallyIt costs the state $25 million annually to manage formative bag pollution. existence agencies in California spend in excess of $303 million annually in litter abatement.Southern California cities guard spent in excess of $1.7 billion in corresponding Total Maximum day-after-day Loads for trashed in impaired waterways.C ities and recyclers spend incalculable amounts removing land card bags from their recyclables stream, where they pound machinery and add to the manual labor costs of recycle.At least 267 species perplex been scientifically documented to be adversely affected by formative marine debris and it is estimated to kill over 100,000 marine mammals and tump overs each year. Plastic bags atomic number 18 considered especially dangerous to sea turtles, who may mis bewilder them for jellyfish, a main feed source. 86% of all known species of sea turtles have had reported problems of entanglement or ingestion of marine debris. Plastic bags that enter our marine surroundings eventually break down into small fragments.Plastic bags, which are made from natural gas or oil, consume an cipher equivalent of thousands of barrels of oil a day just to meet Californias consumption. Numerous recent international, national, state and local reports have called for the banning or drastic reduction of elastic bags due to their environmental damage. Achim Steiner, head of the UN environmental Program, recently express there is simply zero justification for manufacturing credit card bags whatever to a greater extent, anywhere.Home / Plastic Bags / Why Plastic Bags are a difficultyWhy Plastic Bags are a ProblemPlastic bags are popular with consumers and retailers as they are a functional, lightweight, strong, cheap, and hygienic way to fare food and former(a) products. nearly 6.9 billion plastic bags are consumed annually in Australia6 billion of these are high density polythene (HDPE), such as supermarket singlet bags or supermarket checkout bags.0.9 billion are low density polyethylene (LDPE), such as boutique bags.67% of HDPE 25% of LDPE bags are imported with the remainder locally produced.There are two major environmental problems associated with our use of plastic bags.Firstly, plastic bags are one of the most damaging forms of litter.At least 80 million plastic bags e nd up as litter on our beaches, streets and lay each yearWhile they are estimated to only be 2% of the litter stream, they have a signifi put forwardt environmental impact because they can issuing up to 1,000 years to break down.Their persistence in the environment means that they can entangle and harm marine life and other animals. In fact, the World Wide Fund for Nature estimates that more than 100,000 whales, seals, turtles, and birds break away every year as a result of plastic bags.For example, on 24 August 2000, a Brydes whale died in Trinity Bay, 2 km from central Cairns. An autopsy found that the whales stomach was tightly jammed with plastic, including supermarket bags, food packages, bait bags, three large sheets of plastic, and fragments of garbage bags. There was no food in its stomach. When the unawares animal decays, the plastic bags are freed to be re-ingested by other animals in years to come. On land, plastic bag litter can block drains and trap birds. They als o kill livestock. matchless farmer near Mudgee NSW, carried out an autopsy on a dead calf and found 8 plastic bags in its stomach. The loss of this calf cost the farmer around $500. scrubing up this litter is expensive. Australian local and state governments spend over $200 million a year picking up litter (all forms).Source Federal incision of Environment HYPERLINK http//www.deh.gov.au/industry/waste/plastic-bags/HYPERLINK http//www.deh.gov.au/industry/waste/plastic-bags/Heritage websiteSecondly, the plastic shopping bag, a single use item, is a symbol of a wasteful society 20 million Australians use 6.7 billion plastic checkout bags this year (down from 6.9 billion the previous year). Thats nearly 1 plastic bag per person per day or 345 bags per person per year.A persons use of a plastic checkout bag can be counted in minutes however long it takes to get from the shops to their homes.The amount of petroleum used to make one plastic bag would drive a car about 115 metres. The 6 .9 billion plastic checkout bags we use every year is enough to drive a car 800 million kilometres or nearly 20,000 times around the origination i.e. 4 round trips to the Sun. little than 3% of Australias plastic bags are currently being recycled, despite recycling facilities being available at major supermarkets.Only an estimated 19% of the 3.7 billion plastic supermarket shopping bags handed out in Australia every year, are being reused by households as kitchen bin liners.In many council areas, plastic bags are the single main contaminant of kerbside recycling.Plastic bags are non free to consumers they are actually adding an estimated $173 million a year to Australias mart bills.Source Planet ArkWhile these facts paint a grim picture, an October 2003 Roy Morgan guinea pig showed that 87% of Australians were concerned about the impact plastic bags have on the environment. In addition, action is being taken to drop the impact of plastic bags, for exampleColes Bay in Tasmania have successfully censor plastic checkout bags in all their retail stores. to a lower place an agreement mingled with the Federal Government and the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), retailers have until December 2004 to reduce their consumption of lightweight single use plastic checkout bags by 25%. This rises to 50% by December 2005.More and more good deal around the world are becoming aware of the environmental issues skirt plastic bags. Considering their somewhat placid appearance, the impact of plastic bags on the environment can be devastating.Here are some facts about the environmental impact of plastic bagsPlastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistaken them for foodThe fabrication of plastic bags add tonnes of carbon emissions into the air annuallyIn the UK, banning plastic bags would be the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the roadstead each yearBetween 500 billion and 1 one thousand thousand plasti c bags are used worldwide each yearApproximately 60 100 million barrels of oil are infallible to make the worlds plastic bags each yearMost plastic bags take over 400 years to biodegrade. Some figures indicate that plastic bags could take over 1000 years to break down. (I guess nobody go forth live long enough to find out). This means non one plastic bag has ever naturally biodegraded.China uses around 3 billion plastic bags each dayIn the UK, each person uses around 220 plastic bags each yearAround 500,000 plastic bags are collected during Clean Up Australia Day each year. Clean Up Australia Day is a nationwide initiative to get as many members of the public to get out and pick up litter from their local areas. Unfortunately, each year in Australia approximately 50 million plastic bags end up as litter.Fortunately, some governments around the world are taking the initiative to deal with the environmental impact of plastic bags by either banning plastic bags or discouraging thei r usage.Under current city law, large supermarkets and chain drugstores, such as Safeway and Walgreens, only may provide three kinds of bags to customers at the checkout stand recyclable root word bags, compostable plastic bags and reusable bags.All single-use disposable bags are banned under the old law.In the new law, Mirkarimi crafted a few exemptions, which take on using plastic bags for produce or for garments.He is contemplating a keep company piece to his legislation that would impose a 10-cent charge for paper bags. Currently, retailers dont charge for paper bags in San Francisco, though some, such as Whole Foods and Rainbow Grocery, conk out customers credit for using their own bags.Mirkarimi estimates that broadening the law would remove tens of millions more bags from the environment.Plastic bags are a clear example of excess spend amok, he said. People dont necessarily realize the composition of the plastic bag or the consequences of the plastic bag. Theyre omnipres ent.Shari Jackson, director of the Progressive Bag Affiliates of the American Plastics Council, said Mirkarimis proposed legislation would have unintended consequences, chiefly increasing the use of paper bags, which have their own environmental problems, and taking away jobs of people who manufacture the plastic bags