Thursday 14 June 2018

Plastic bags: Solving a problem

We have invented, crafted, engineered, for our connivence must I say, something that will last longer than even coal, a commodity once thought to be a renewable resource.

A couple of years ago I visited Madagascar, a beautiful country off the East Coast of South Africa. I was volunteering for humanitarian work with the Mercy Ships Organization, literally a floating village and hospital traveling all around Africa helping the sick and those without access to good medical care. A day before I left myself and the headmaster of the school on the ship headed out onto the ocean on Stand Up paddles. It was a beautiful day, we rode the ocean and eventually wandered into some lagoons in land. The filth from litter, the smell and the plastic bags floating on the water not only saddened me but shocked me, I had never experienced this up close. A fantastic coastline loosing its ocean life through this.

A picture from Indonesia, not very different from what I saw in Madagascar


A plastic bag takes 1000 years to decompose. I don't know how many people you know who have just turned 1000 but the statistic should scare you if you have any consideration for the generation growing up.

I don't think our parents gave a shit about our earth, and I don't think our generation is doing enough either to see the reversal of the damage we have done. Each generation, caring only for themselves, has possibly sent a future generation into the most miserable and testing times any human has ever seen.

Some of the items which pollute our oceans the most


Let me just start by saying I am a Hypocrite! I have used plastic bags, I have left taps running, left light on in houses, driven petrol cars, smoked, you name it. I am by no means the greatest ambassador for making these small changes. Should that stop me from trying to make small changes? Should that cripple me from making any beneficial change for a generation to come? I think not. Every small difference I believe can make changes.

Money, consumerism and the market on a whole has created a need for plastic bags and everything really that does damage to the environment. Its a two way street, customers are willing to use/buy which means shops and sellers are willing to order which makes producers willing to continue the cycle. I suppose I don't blame them, I mean if that was your source of income you would need to think hard about leaving the industry. I don't think it started here though.


I believe if we put pressure on stores, they will have to listen

In the world everything is developed from an idea. A consumer has difficulty carrying their groceries, the store that offers a more convent way to transport groceries to the car and back to the house becomes the market leader. Perhaps you have to pay for a box or a crate, the store that creates the cheapest and most convenient way to carry your goods naturally becomes a first choice. To give it cheaply you need to make it cheaply regardless of the effects on our planet. So what do we do?

I have absolutely no idea, but I'm sure somebody on this planet may have a solution. Here is some basic information about the situation on plastic bags all over the world. Click Here
And here is a list of countries that have already banned plastic bags. 

Countries that have banned or partially introduces tax on plastic bags, tax is not enough. 

Recently on 5fm, presenters shared information on Woolworths possibly being the first store to ban plastic bans completely and phase them out. This news excited me, only to visit the store a week later and discover plastic bags still in full circulation. I think every customer can put pressure on stores to make this decision. What my girlfriend and I have started doing, where possible (as I say I am a hypocrite) is the following:

1) Refuse plastic bags at stores (even if the cashier has packed it in a bag, ask them to unpack it)
2) Take recyclable plastic bags when shopping
3) Look for "greener" companies to but goods from, online or in stores, stores that have box packaging instead of plastic.
4) Ask: "When are you getting rid of plastic bags?" If every customer says it every day, management will sit up and take notice.
5) Refuse straws at restaurants or shops: These are one of the biggest pollutants of our oceans


Whales dead from eating plastic


SIGN THE PETITION: Help the NZ government get rid of single use plastics, Click here: Sign

Its sad, not much can be done, but seeing whales die on beaches from plastic inhalation, is some of the saddest images I have seen. There is hundreds of images around the world of plastic pollution on beaches destroying out ecosystems if we can only be aware of it, perhaps we can make small changes and influence others to do the same.


Some ways and strategies to keep our oceans clean. 



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