Quote:
Originally Posted by Cav
Let's look at what is happening in NZ which doesn't have a ban on single use plastic bags, yet.
Single use plastic bags account for 8.2% in the marine environment in a NZ study.
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Surely we should ban the main problem, not just one little part.
To do otherwise is gesture politics and achieves bugger all except allowing politicians to beat their chests about at least doing something.
The Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage said she was getting closer to making a decision on plastic bags, and an announcement would be made within the next few months.
"Plastic bags, which are used once and thrown away, need to be phased out."
So I will keep asking this question, "Do we want to solve the plastic waste or not?"
If so ban all plastic.
Either make a decision to do this or do nothing |
I think banning all plastics would be great. The problem, as highlighted by zipping and acknowledged by me earlier, is that plastic is a very versatile product and has found its way in to so many places that a ban on all plastics would be totally impractical.
So, what do we do?
First question we need to ask ourselves is whether the increased reliance on plastic is a good thing for our environment or not. Now, asking this question I am only considering the disposal phase and not the amount of materials and energy required to produce the plastic in the first place.
Given the info earlier that not one piece of plastic ever made has biodegraded, and that our use of plastic is increasing (
source), the amount of plastic that still exists in this world is not a good thing.
If you are of the opposite view, exit here.
Next, if we are concerned, what can we do about it? Ban it? Sure, but as I said earlier, that is not really a practicable solution right now. So, what other way can we reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the waste streams? The next obvious choice is to recycle. And I think that band wagon is starting to gain some momentum, but it needs more publicity to get people on side (assuming that they can be brought on side).
What else can we do? The next thing,in my mind, is to at least minimise the impact form an item that has one single use and one single use only. Plastic shopping bags are not the only culprit in this space. There are many more examples that we could all think of. But single use shopping bags seems like as good a place as any to start, doesn't it, because it is something that we as a nation can control. It is a little more difficult to impose import laws, for example, on single use packaging materials given that the vast majority of our products are made overseas and we would have little to no impact should we introduce such legislation.
Look, I get the scepticism around this. But, from my perspective, this is just the first step in a very looooong process to be able to reduce our reliance on a substance that never disappears, and at the end of the day, once it is used, it is disposed of. There has to be a point where we stop and have a look to see what impact our decisions as a race is having on our environment. The environment that currently sustains this race's life. Is it worth upsetting the imbalance over? Or can we take some steps to limit our impact now whilst we haven't upset that balance?
Or do we do nothing but mock the government because they made a decision that appears to have very little real impact?