War on Plastic

Something to tide you over while I work on my next post. Sorry for the delay - not used to blogging! This is an expertly clipped and scanned section from Time magazine (Vol 186, No. 15-16, 2015).

Can you see the text? It gives a brief roundup of 'The war on plastic bags'. Denmark began in 1994. California was due for a ban but it was defeated by opponents. Then we have some rather surprising entries. Bangladeshi banned plastic bags in 2002 after a series of deadly floods were caused by blocked sewers, and Rwanda actually has a black market for plastic bags after it banned them completely in 2008. I say 'surprising entries' because until I saw the article above, I was assuming (wrongly) that more developed countries were leading initiatives toward environmental stability - such as through banning or charging for plastic bags. What I didn't recognise is that many countries, often less developed, have had to introduce these measures for more practical reasons - to counteract the imminent dangers that widespread plastic bag use can cause. 

What I think this article really highlights is that there is no global solution to plastic pollution. Each nation has different incentives guiding attitudes toward plastics, and each of these need to be understood if we are to fully address the problem of plastic pollution, particularly in our oceans.