Actions

Home

Join the Sew-Op

For access to the sew-op forum, calendar, and wiki, please login or create an account.
Home arrow Plastic Bag Boycott
Plastic Bag Boycott PDF Print E-mail
Plastic shopping bags/Carrier bags are a common type of shopping bag in several countries. They are made of polyethylene (low-density or more "crinkly" high-density) and are cheaper and lighter in weight than their paper counterparts, but lack stiffness. Items shifting within the bag can cause the bag to fall over and spill its contents; this can be prevented by placing rigid items upright in the bag to provide support. The handles of these bags also have a tendency to lose elasticity and break under the weight of their contents. Plastic bags hold up better than paper bags when wet, such as in rain. Plastic bags are commonly reused as either garbage bags, or can be recycled along with other plastic containers. As the global climate crisis deepens consumers are starting to take responsibility for their actions and to use reusable cloth bags and other bags like backpacks etc in place of the proverbial one time use plastic shopping bag.

Litter and the environment

Plastic bags are notorious for becoming litter. They are known in several countries by names such as "Witches' knickers" because of their unpleasant tendency to blow about and cling to things in the wind. Most do not biodegrade although increasing numbers are made from degradable material. The bags present an entanglement or choking hazard for birds and marine life.

UV-degradable bags are easy to design and manufacture and manufacturers have also made biodegradable (also called oxo-degradable) versions, many using a TDPA additive to speed up the breakdown of plastic into small parts. This is not a solution, however, because these small particles of oil based plastic are toxic to animal populations that confuse them for food -- especially marine life. Breaking the bags into small parts only makes the problem less visible, since these small parts still take upwards of 1000 years to biodegrade. Oxo-degradable bags are also problematic as they release their carbon more quickly into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming at a faster rate than normal plastic bags.

Reusing the bags is a widely recommended approach to reducing their environmental impact. An even better less wasteful way of transporting goods is the usage of cloth shopping bags or using a backpack or other bags/totes that are already owned.

At present the most widely implemented solution to these problems is to reduce the use of plastic bags. Plastic bags were outlawed in South Africa in 2003, they are banned in Bangladesh (where they were blamed for causing flooding during monsoons by clogging drains) and Taiwan. A plastic bag tax was introduced in Ireland in 2002, after which plastic bag usage decreased by almost 90%. The government levy on plastic bags was €0.15 as of 2006. Many retailers in Ireland switched to supplying (untaxed) paper bags, or simply stopped supplying bags. Most supermarkets continued to supply plastic bags, subject to the tax.

Plastic bags are banned in at least 30 villages and towns in Alaska, including the towns of Emmonak, Galena, and Kotlik. A ban on plastic sacks goes into effect towards the end of 2007 in Paris; they are outlawed in all of France starting Jan. 1, 2010. As of March 2007, the city of San Francisco in the US is considering a ban.

Ikea, the home furnishings retailer, imposes its own tax on plastic bags in the US — charging a nickel to any customer who wants a plastic sack. A similar charge has been in place since spring 2006 at Ikea stores in the UK, and the company says it has reduced use of bags in UK stores by 95 percent. Ikea hopes the 5-cent fee in the U.S. cuts bag use in half, from 70 million bags a year to 35 million.

Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that U.S. consumers throw away 100 billion plastic bags a year.

Bags can also be made from vegetable-based bioplastic. This material biodegrades quickly and does not leave toxic residue. It also does not produce carbon dioxide beyond what was present in the raw material. However, bioplastic can have its own environmental impacts, depending on the way it is produced. As demand grows for bioplastics, pressure on land to grow plants rises which can provide the raw materials for its production - rainforests and other important habitats.