Urban tumbleweed - the blight of plastic bags

I was in Sainsbury's just now and, when confronted with the 5 pence charge, obviously chose to pack my items in my backpack. It’s so refreshing! I was observing people on the train and on the streets, especially at lunch time - there is barely a plastic bag in sight! There is the slight issue of my home running out of our stack of plastic bags under the kitchen sink, but for the sake of the planet I won’t complain too much about that aspect.

I think it’s really great. I was wondering what kind of discourse it follows – I mean it’s economic rationalisation as it is putting a charge on plastic items. But at the same time it’s democratic pragmatism, because as a rational actor, I’m making the decision to save money, but since 5p isn’t a lot really, I’m also deciding to be a citizen over being a consumer.

Plastic bags, a.k.a urban tumbleweed, a.k.a witches knickers (yeah, apparently…?), a.k.a the national flower of South Africa are truly a blight upon both urban and rural landscapes worldwide. But it isn't just that they look bad. There is evidence of their detrimental effect upon landscapes. Within nine weeks, plastic bags in coastal marsh regions cause a breakdown of the foodchain: they smother the surface, blocking light, disrupting oxygen and nutrient flow, and reducing microalgae underneath them. Other examples from across the globe are numerous; the cause of flooding in Bangladesh, the heightened increase of Malaria outbreaks in Kenya (as water collects and stagnates in the bags), the death of livestock from ingesting bags... the list goes on. And it shows that on-land effects are equally as damaging as the effects upon the marine habitat. ANOTHER whale dies from a plastic bag in it's digestive tract.

The increasing frequency of these impacts have kickstarted action against plastic bags, mainly in the last decade, with nations from Bangladesh, China, Rwanda, and Italy banning them outright, and nations such as Denmark, Ireland, Germany, across the U.K, and states within both America and Australia independently banning or taxing bags. 

These initatives to curb the use of plastic bags have been successful. Wales reported a 96% drop in bag use since the introduction of a charge, and Ireland has previously reported similar results. Likewise, the proceeds from the charge can be forwarded to good causes. 

Source; Wikipedia 

Considering we use so many plastic bags, what actually are they? Considering they are such a ubiquitous item, there isn't much immediately obvious information outlining their production. From what I can gather, it's low-cost crude oil (predominantly sourced from the Middle East) which is steam cracked (?) and turned into polyethylene, or PE pellets. They account for $10 billion of a $370 billion plastics industry (Guardian, 2015). 

However, with an estimated 5-13 million tonnes of plastic entering the ocean each year, plastic bags only account for 0.03% of marine litter (INCPEN). So why is there a disproportionate targeting of plastic carrier bags over other littered plastics? It is the most potent symbol of our throw-away, consumerist culture. This sentiment is echoed in many articles and by many stakeholders, but is using plastic bags as an icon in the fight against plastic litter effective? Yes: I for one am not using anywhere near as many plastic bags, but unfortunately myself and thousands (millions) of others like me are still using other environmentally damaging plastic products, simply because 1) we aren't aware or 2) there is nothing nudging us to not use them. 

The more research I do into plastic bags, the more information I'm finding that banning plastic bags is not enough! It's another one of those iconic actions governments are taking to tackle pollution but really, there is so much more to do. Some critics even argue that banning plastic bags could even be detrimental. The use of paper bags as substitutes has a larger carbon footprint; paper bags take more energy to manufacture, they are heavier and therefore require more space and energy to be transported. The special provisions and lenience for other substitutes such as biodegradable bags or extremely thin, light-weight bags has been debated within the European Parliament, but even this has been criticised, as the presence of these biodegradable elements in recycled goods can impair the quality of those products. A variety of stakeholders all have something to add, from NGO's to the Environmental Bureau, Plastics Europe, and Municipal Waste Europe - again evidence of the numerous linkages between the range discourses and interests at play. European Member States (MS) are part of a directive to curb the use of plastic bags, with the Directive 94/63/EC being amended to allow national reductions in plastic bag use, with recommended consumption decreases of 80% by 2019.

These European initiatives to combat plastic proliferation within the environment also extends to plastic packaging, especially those surrounding food products. Sainsbury's estimated a 14% reduction in packaging for milk after adopting new shapes for the bottle. This redesigning of packaging is a great idea, but it must be remembered that some food packaging is essential for preservation of food, especially in countries such as India where half of all produce spoils before it reaches the market due to lack of cold storage. In these instances, plastic is the only real alternative in order to keep food fresh and edible. 

For the case against plastic bags in the USA, check out these graphs and tables to get a brief idea of attitudes toward bags. 

Source: Reuse This Bag

Source: Earth Policy Institute

Again, the plastic industry has massive lobbying power, and has prevented the state-wide ban on plastic bags in California. This is a state which is dedicated to diverting over 80% of its waste to be recycled or composted, but still can not effectively tackle plastic because of the powerful discourses of a few. However, thankfully the lower graph shows increasing education and movements toward banning or charging for plastic bags. 

But in each of these examples, other plastic sources of pollution remain untouched. Microplastics are a MAJOR problem. I'll go into that in more detail in my next blog post, but it's safe to say there is barely any effective legislation or action being taken against their release into the environment, despite their more detrimental effects to marine life. While there are some instances of products containing microplastics being banned, again it is not to the extent needed to make progressive advances against the problem of plastic pollution. 

I do think it is important that we have made moves to reduce plastic bags. It is an iconic item, and drawing attention to them has increased awareness about plastic pollution, which is great. But more needs to be done. The focus on plastic bags is too easily unpicked and undermined, especially in this factsheet by INCPEN. It does seem a bit biased, but they are all relevant arguments. What I want to stress is that we cannot start and finish with plastic bags. We must start with them and continue further to combat other sources of litter pollution. 

I finish pretty much each post in the same way, but I can't stress enough that there are a multitude of solutions that can be used in conjunction with each other, some of which are laid out clearly by the Natural Resources Defense Council. On an individual basis, we need to be more environmentally conscious in our consumer habits. On an producer basis, there needs to be more accountability - fully recyclable packaging, efficient designs, using profits for more innovative uses of material and technology. And on a national basis, there definitely needs to be greater cooperation between governments and infrastructures, especially in the waste management sector. Likewise, greater legislative pushes to address pollution, and the formation of international guidelines to curb pollution globally. 

Come on world! We can do this!