And so we come to the end of 'Plastic-Free July!, and I am remembering being offered a 'Plastic-Free July' calico bag from my local Supermarket (Gulgong). I told the check-out lady I had my own bag, but she exclaimed: "take one anyway, we’re giving them out to everybody!”
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And yet, now at the end of July, I still see people walking out with plastic bags, and nobody seems to be too concerned!
I am wondering if people realise the object of the exercise? i.e. Plastic piling up in our rivers and in the ocean... Fish, turtles and even whales being killed by ingesting too much plastic, which no doubt has the appearance of jellyfish or broken-down plankton, quite apart from the unsightliness of all that plastic accumulating!
It seems a simple thing to do i.e. to take one's own shopping bag or bags - a simple act to help our environment.
Isn't it time we make new habits?
Kay Binns (Gulgong)
Plastic Free July aims to raise awareness of the problems with single-use disposable plastic and challenges people to do something about it.
Australians use up to an estimated 4 billion light-weight plastic bags a year.
Greens Marine spokesperson Justin Field said an estimated 50 million plastic bags end up as litter in the environment each year in Australia.
The plastic bottles, bags and takeaway containers that we use just for a few minutes use a material that is designed to last forever.
These plastics:
- break up, not break down – becoming permanent pollution
- are mostly downcycled (made into low grade product for just one more use) or sent to landfill
- ‘escape’ from bins, trucks, events etc. to become ‘accidental litter’
- end up in waterways and the ocean – where scientists predict there will be more tonnes of plastic than tonnes of fish by 2050
- transfer to the food chain – carrying pollutants with them
- increase our eco-footprint with plastic manufacturing consumes 6% of the world’s fossil fuels
Every bit of plastic ever made still exists and in the first 10 years of this century the world economy produced more plastic than the entire 1900's!
For more hints and tricks on how to get started visit plasticfreejuly.org