British shops hand out a staggering 13 billion every year. But after a decision by 33 London councils yesterday, plastic bags could be soon be consigned to history, unmourned by anyone who cares about cleaning up the environment.
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Eighty villages, towns and cities, including Brighton and Bath, have introduced or are considering a ban on them since shops in the Devon market town of Modbury went "plastic bag- free". But yesterday represented the most significant move yet. The capital is now on board.
All 33 authorities in the London Councils group voted for legislation to prevent shops in the capital handing out free plastic bags. In the next fortnight Westminster Council will present a private Bill to the House of Commons which would apply to every London shop from the humblest newsagent to Harrods.
Shoppers clutching large numbers of bags in London's West End could become a thing of the past; instead they will be asked to use sturdy reusable plastic "bags for life" or cotton or string hold-alls. London's authorities said they needed to halt the environmental damage done by plastic bags, which use oil and landfill space and kill marine wildlife.
The ban is likely to be opposed by big retailers such as Tesco which prefer encouragement rather than coercion to change behaviour. But campaigners point to international trailblazers that have already banned the bags, places as diverse as Tasmania and Tanzania, which this year were joined by Paris and San Francisco. London would be the biggest urban centre yet to take the plunge.
Peter Robinson, director of Waste Watch, said: "We've seen successful action taken on carrier bags all across the world from Australia to Zanzibar, and now it's time for London to take a lead on this issue in the UK."
Although the London ban could take years to come into force, the groundswell of opposition to free disposable bags is unmistakable – and perhaps unstoppable. Major retailers have signed an agreement with the Government's waste body, Wrap, to reduce the environmental impact of plastic bag use by 25 per cent by the end of next year. They are making the bags more lightweight, exploring biodegradable options, and discouraging their routine distribution.
Tesco says it has cut its use of carrier bags by 1 billion to 3 billion after a high-profile campaign to give loyalty points to shoppers reusing them. Today Sainsbury's will announce in its financial results that it has cut plastic bag use by 10 per cent as a result of having signs at the checkouts asking shoppers to consider the environment and promoting jute and cotton bags. Marks & Spencer is to chargeshoppers 5p a plastic bag after a trial in Northern Ireland that cut the number handed out by 66 per cent.
The Government says it is monitoring the efforts in commerce, but is set against a plastic bag tax of the kind introduced five years ago in Ireland, where the number of carrier bags has fallen by 90 per cent. Officials claim there is evidence that Irish shoppers are using other types of plastic instead. The plastic revolution was started by a BBC camerawoman, Rebecca Hosking, from Modbury, after she had seen the deaths of albatross chicks that had eaten plastic. In the absence of government action, 43 traders in the town decided to start their own "plastic bag-free town" in May. The shops refused to give out free plastic bags, charging 5p for a cornstarch bag, 10p for a paper one or £1.50 for a cotton carrier.
Trade did not fall off, and the six-month experiment proved so successful that Modbury has made the change permanentand made the carrying of a plastic bag an antisocial activity.
Other towns such as Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire and Overton in Hampshire have followed suit, and the idea of going "plastic bag-free" is taking hold elsewhere, such as in Brighton, where councillors last month called on the city's retailers to stop giving out bags.
The plastics industry insisted that such bans were environmentally harmful, arguing that re-use of plastic bags – to line bins, wrap packed lunches and scoop up dogs' mess – made them more environmentally friendly than cotton alternatives, and that the oil used to make the HDPE (high density polyethylene) bags came from a by-product of oil.
Nonetheless, the industry says that unnecessary use of bags is a problem, and is calling on shoppers to consider whether they really need them. Peter Woodall, of the Packaging and Industrial Films Association, said: "We are losing the battle in terms of hearts and minds of the public, who now certainly believe that the plastic bag is a hazard to health and the environment and something we need to eradicate from society."
Ms Hosking, who started the Modbury experiment, said that plastic bags were the start of a campaign against disposable consumer culture. "It's our consumption of everything – whether it's petrol, water or consumer goods – that is driving virtually every environmental problem on the planet and it needs to stop. We have shown that individual people can make a difference," she said.
A local convenience, a global problem
Anyone who has seen The Graduate, one of the great movie classics, will remember vividly the single-word piece of advice that Dustin Hoffman's confused young career-hopeful, Benjamin Braddock, receives from a well-meaning family friend: Plastics.
Asked to clarify what exactly he means, the family friend, Mr McGuire, explains: "There's a great future in plastics." And in 1967, when the film was made, no doubt there was.
Unfortunately, in the succeeding years, many aspects of what then seemed to be those oh-so-convenient, revolutionary, synthetic materials have come to appear not a blessing but a curse – and plastic bags are high on the list.
The trouble with them is that they have the vices of their virtues. They are incredibly cheap and light, and so are produced in astronomical, scarcely credible, numbers; and remarkably tough for their lightness, they are incredibly persistent in the environment once we have finished with them.
Nobody knows exactly how many plastic bags are consumed annually worldwide, but a good estimate is between 500 billion and 1,000 billion, which comes out at more than a million a minute – and then they're all thrown away. But as they do not biodegrade, huge numbers don't disappear. They have become the most ubiquitous item of litter. They are the icons of the throwaway society.
In parts of Africa, there are so many blowing through the bush that a cottage industry has sprung up in harvesting windblown bags and using them to weave hats, or even more bags.
But in some parts of the environment, they represent a lethal threat to wildlife, in particular in the oceans. According to the British Antarctic Survey, they have spread from Spitzbergen north of the Arctic Circle to the Falkland Islands at the other end of the globe.
When floating they can resemble jellyfish, and so are often mistakenly eaten by sea turtles and other marine mammals and birds, with fatal results.
No one denies plastic bags are satisfyingly convenient. But as Billy Joel sang, you pay for your satisfaction somewhere along the line.
Michael McCarthy
source: 14nov2007
One shop in north London has already placed itself on the front line of the plastic bag revolution.
As well as banishing non-biodegradable carriers from behind the till, it has taken away almost all of its packaging, leaving shoppers to bring in their own jars, pots and bags to be filled with their day's groceries.
Catherine Conway, the owner of Unpackaged in Islington, which opened last week, said the idea came to her when she was decanting rice from packets into jars at home. "It made me think there must be a way of taking out this process," said the 30-year-old.
In her new shop, wooden crates overflow with organic vegetables that are put straight into customers' bags, vats of olive oil are on tap to refill their own bottles, and barrels of environmentally friendly detergent can be poured straight into containers brought from home.
Dried foods such as pulses, nuts and rice are arranged in square containers in the centre of the shop, while hand-made chocolates and fudge stand in traditional glass jars above the counter. Joy Schendledecker had come – carrying a cotton bag – with her five-month-old baby to buy environmentally friendly toothpaste.
"I bring my own bags because it is cheaper and better for the environment," she said, adding: "It's common in America to be able to buy health food in bulk, but it does not seem to happen over here."
Customers can scoop the loose food into any container they like. One came in last week with an exquisitely decorated porcelain vase to collect his rice.
For those who forget their containers, reusable ziplock bags [Mindfully.org note: This must be ended as well] are provided, but that means an extra 50p on the bill. "If people know they can save money by using them again, they will, so it works well," said the shopkeeper.
source: 14nov2007
Could there be a more potent symbol of our throwaway society than a plastic bag, snagged and flapping on a suburban hedge? Even if a plastic bag is disposed of properly, it is likely to end up in a landfill site, where it will decompose for centuries, emitting harmful carbon dioxide.
The good news is that there is a simple and proven solution to this environmental blight. Ireland imposed a modest plastic bag tax in 2002, which has reduced their use by 90 per cent. The bad news is that, despite the fact that Britain's plastic bag pollution is every bit as bad as it used to be across the Irish Sea, our own government refuses to follow Dublin's example.
Yet something is stirring at a grass-roots level in this country. Earlier this year, a local campaigner in the Devon village of Modbury, Rebecca Hosking, persuaded all 43 local shops to substitute their plastic bags with reusable cloth bags. Traders in 80 other small towns around Britain are following suit. Brighton and Hove council last week became the largest authority in Britain to offer support for a voluntary ban. And the heads of London's 33 local authorities voted yesterday to support a tax on plastic bags within the capital.
Even supermarkets have sensed which way the wind is blowing. Marks & Spencer is trialling a 5p levy on its plastic bags. Sainsbury's is promoting a 10p "bag for life". Tesco gives reward points to shoppers who reuse their old ones. It all makes the Government's refusal to take a lead by imposing an Irish-style levy look somewhat perverse.
The Department for the Environment justifies itself by arguing that a levy would encourage people to use bags "made from other materials or alternative forms of packaging, which may be equally, or more, damaging to the environment". But this misses the point. A modest levy on plastic bags encourages people to think about the polyethylene sacks that are thrust into their hands whenever they visit the supermarket or the corner shop. The experience of Ireland has shown that, when subject to a levy, shoppers begin to consider whether they ought to reuse the bags, perhaps even switching to a regular cloth one. As an additional benefit, they give more thought to how they dispose of the bags.
It is likely that the real reason the Government is resisting a tax is that it fears it would be unpopular among shoppers. But they are too cautious. Surveys have shown that people would be willing to accept robust action clearly directed at reducing plastic bag waste.
A plastic bag tax would have a rapid and wholly beneficial effect on our environment. It is time that the Government had the courage of its supposedly green convictions and implemented a nationwide levy.
source: 14nov2007
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