The Recycling Group runs the following promotional activities for Transition Town High Wycombe:
Would you like to help with these ideas? Do you have further ideas or would you like to join this group? Then please contact us by clicking
Why are plastic bags bad?
* an estimated 5 billion bags given out by UK supermarkets each year
* 200 million land as litter on beaches, streets and parks
* Average consumer uses 290 bags every year
* Average use is 12 - 20 minutes before disposal
* Worldwide, we use between 500 billion – 1.2 trillion plastic bags each year
* Takes 400 years to degrade—or up to 1,000 years in the sea
* There are very few outlets for recycling plastic bags
* 100,000 tonnes of plastic bags gets dumped each year – only 1 in 200 is recycled
* 32% of marine debris in North East Atlantic in 2005 was plastic bags
* They harm wildlife - on land, in rivers and at sea...
* 1.4 million bags counted in International Coastal Clean-up 2008
* 70% of 1995 dredge sample on French/Spanish coast was plastic bags
* Beachwatch 2008 found a total of 8,174 plastic bags on UK beaches (an average of 46 plastic bags per k/m.
Plastic bags are only part of the problem...
* More than 50% of debris found on beaches is plastic
* 90% of floating marine litter is plastic. Four-fifths comes from land, swept by the wind or rained off highways and streets, down streams and rivers, and out to sea
* 1982 - 2001, 96% of dead fulmars in the North sea had plastic fragments in their stomachs — an average of 23 pieces per bird
* 96% of the world’s plastic is not recycled.
* Clearing up plastic from UK beaches costs £7 million every year
* 177 marine species (including 95% of the world’s sea birds) have eaten plastic litter. Oceanic microplastics now out-weigh plankton. Plastic toxins eaten by filter feeders will pass up the food chain to bigger fish and eventually to human consumers
What can you or I do?
You can make a big difference just saying ‘NO!’ to free plastic carrier bags whenever you can. There are hundreds of different re-useable bags you can buy in all shapes, sizes and colours- cotton bags, durable plastic bags, string bags, Hessian bags, jute bags, designer bags - even parachute material!
You just need to get into the habit of having some bags in handy. So keep some in your car, your handbag, pockets just in case. If you only have a few small items, do you really need a bag anyway? You may have noticed changes are already afoot -- alternatives to plastic packaging are cropping up and some retailers are already asking shoppers "Do you really need a bag?".
Plastic bags are only the tip of the iceberg as far as our use of the earth's resources, and we should beware of feeling that just by reducing our use of them we 'are doing our bit'. We are doing a bit of our bit, but we still need to address all the other overconsumption practices we have adopted.
What are the alternatives?
• Bring your own: The plastic bag has only been around for a generation. It became common in the late 1970s. Before that people brought their own bags or baskets and they were made from hard-wearing but bio-degradable material such as cloth, wicker, cane or jute. A re-usable bag is still the best alternative to a plastic bag; the shopper has to be encouraged to bring his/her own bag, i.e. re-use what we have.
• Cloth, jute or other fabric bags: New bags should be made to last a long time and should be something which we can and will want to re-use time and time again, manufactured from a natural fabric which will naturally degrade when its life-time is over. It is essential that only fabrics that are produced to the highest environmental and ethical standards are used, for example crops should be grown organically or without pesticides; be GM free; materials should be unbleached; inks should be vegetable based, ideally “Azo free”; glues and linings should also be of natural materials; items should be produced under fair-trade standards; energy costs of transport should be minimized.
It is best to buy from wholesalers who have already asked the questions of where and how their bags are made and can prove what they say.
• Cornstarch bags: These can be made from GM free corn starch, vegetable oils and compostable polyesters which are therefore easily compostable and biodegradable to water, CO2 and residual organic carbon (compost), leaving no harmful residues. These are available in sizes from 8 to 240 litres.
• Paper: Paper is not necessarily a good alternative. Although it biodegrades and is not normally a hazard to animal life, the production process uses a lot of energy and water and not all forests are sustainably managed. Mass produced paper is bad for the environment and should be avoided, however if the paper comes from Sustainable Forest Certified (SFC) timber or from another Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) forests or from the EU, if the paper is unbleached and undyed, if it is partly or totally recycled, has no watermarks, embossed patterns, lamination or waxed finishing, and the glues used are biodegradable and vegetable based, then we believe such bags are preferable to plastic.
• The British wicker basket: Dare we say it? Perhaps there are some shoppers who would return to this good old British alternative – expensive but home grown and produced.
We suggest that each store sources an alternative cotton, jute, paper, or cornstarch bag as suits its needs, which could be offered at a minimal charge. A list of possible suppliers is available from us.
Corn-starch is widely used as a biodegradable alternative to plastic. The best way to deal with this at home is to put it in your home composter - if you have one. Corn-starch bags are thin enough to break down in a home composter, but don't try this with a corn-starch food tray or smoothie bottle - you'll find it lurking in the bottom of your compost heap, untouched at all after a year. Thicker corn-starch needs the higher temperatures that industrial composters can achieve, so until food waste is collected by councils these items will still have to go to landfill.
