Plastic bags

20 million Australians currently use around 5 billion plastic check-out bags every year.
Bring your own reuseable bags when shopping at the Coop and save lives.

Which recyclable bags?

Many US shopping chains are now promoting reusable shopping bags and no longer give away free throw-away bags. In some cities, such as San Francisco, the singlet bags are banned in supermarkets and chain stores. It is however proving to be difficult to determine what really is an environmentally responsible bag. Here are some of the concerns:

• Often bags are made in China and shipped thousands of kilometers using unique fossil fuels while polluting the oceans and shores with the exhaust from dirty marine fuel just to get them to the place where they are to be reused
• Often bags are made of plastic which takes a long time to decompose. They can't be washed.
  
• If bags are not reused they are more environmentally damaging than disposable thin bags because they are made with more solid materials.
• Many cheap recyclable bags are made in Chinese factories from polypropylene, using 28 times as much energy as a disposable bag
• Cotton bags can require a large amount of water and energy to produce and may use harsh chemical dyes. However they can be washed and reused for a long time like clothing.
  
• Paper bags destroy trees and the factories pollute water and air. They can be reused many times but usually aren't.
  

The biggest problem is to get people to use reusable bags even after they buy them. But at the same time disposable plastic bags are becoming unpopular. 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away each year in the US.
Producers of reusable bags have reported big increases in sales.

Recyclable plastic bags in the oceans

The majority of the rubbish that ends up in the oceans comes from the land, not from ships. Only a small amount of plastic waste ends up in landfills. Huge areas of the ocean surface are now covered in plastic garbage with disastrous consequences for sea animals, fish and birds as well as water quality. One of the main components of this waste is plastic bags. Others are fishing tackle, balloons, six-packs, smoking accessories and packaging of all sorts.
Recyclable plastic bags are used in many shops, including many in Manly which claim to make a contribution to the environment by using them. Many of these bags claim to biodegrade quickly, to break down or even to be compostable. However when they reach the sea, they do not break down at all in salt water and are just like other plastic garbage.
They do not compost in the ocean or on the beach. Researchers tied these plastic bags to moorings in a harbour. "A year later you could still carry groceries in them." (p 117 Weisman)
Reusing containers is preferable to any kind of throw-away plastic containers.
Image from dotAtelier.