Environmental Impact of Plastic Bags
More and more people around the world are becoming aware of the environmental issues surrounding plastic bags. Considering their somewhat placid appearance, the impact of plastic bags on the environment can be devastating.
Here are some facts about the environmental impact of plastic bags:
- Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistaken them for food
- The manufacture of plastic bags add tonnes of carbon emissions into the air annually
- In the UK, banning plastic bags would be the equivalent of taking 18,000 cars off the roads each year
- Between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year
- Approximately 60 - 100 million barrels of oil are required to make the world’s plastic bags each year
- Most plastic bags take over 400 years to biodegrade. Some figures indicate that plastic bags could take over 1000 years to break down. (I guess nobody will live long enough to find out!). This means not one plastic bag has ever naturally biodegraded.
- China uses around 3 billion plastic bags each day!
- In the UK, each person uses around 220 plastic bags each year
- Around 500,000 plastic bags are collected during Clean Up Australia Day each year. Clean Up Australia Day is a nationwide initiative to get as many members of the public to get out and pick up litter from their local areas. Unfortunately, each year in Australia approximately 50 million plastic bags end up as litter.
Fortunately, some governments around the world are taking the initiative to deal with the environmental impact of plastic bags by either banning plastic bags or discouraging their usage.
Tags: biodegrade, clean up australia day, environment, plastic bags
January 10th, 2008 at 8:23 am
[...] Natural Environment Blog Blogging for the Natural Environment « Environmental Impact of Plastic Bags [...]
January 11th, 2008 at 10:13 am
It would be interesting to know what paper’s impact is too. I’m sure it is more biodegradable than plastic, but paper’s production pollution & impact on tree loss would be interesting to know too. Luckily our grocer encourages returning with our paper bags for reuse!
January 12th, 2008 at 9:48 am
[...] post about the environmental impact of plastic bags attracted a fair comment about the impact of paper bags on the environment. It seems that many [...]
January 12th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Good comment Rocky. I decided to create another post - this time for paper. Paper’s impact on the environment is quite surprising!
Here it is: Paper bags versus plastic bags
January 13th, 2008 at 12:25 am
[...] they are reusable, plastic bags aren’t eco friendly. They’re not very big either, which means you need to use more of [...]
January 26th, 2008 at 1:46 am
[...] number of plastic bags being used globally each year is mind boggling and they are having an enormous impact on the natural environment. I think we should be doing everything we can to eliminate them. Paper bags aren’t the answer [...]
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
[...] So, we’ve had our free lunch. Now, every one of those free plastic bags is being paid for - by the natural environment. Unfortunately, the average 8 minutes of usage we got from each of our plastic bags will now take 1,000 years to be fully paid for. That’s how long it can take for a plastic bag to decompose. And that’s not all. There are many other impacts of plastic bags on the environment. [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 6:18 am
[...] days, we hear a lot about the tragic consequences of plastic bags on the environment. In particular, plastic bags are causing significant damage to our oceans and marine life. But what [...]
June 7th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
[...] all know that plastic bags are bad for the environment. And we all know why it’s important to do something about the plastic bag problem. Most [...]
November 6th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
why did we make them in the 1st place and why cant we do something about it its not like we cant help!
And its hurting the earth and living things and maybe it mite be us soon because you never know whats going to happen next so we need to take a stand and stop plastic bags beening made and also stop it killing animals!
SO HELP SAVE THE WORLD AND DO SOMETHING
February 18th, 2009 at 8:55 am
We own supermarkets and have started promoting reusable bags with limited usage. I have thought about going to 100% paper bags to reduce plastic polution, but have been told that paper bags take as long as plastic to degrade. I know the ideal is the reusable bags, but that will take awhile to train customers and I’m thinking to help now. What is the truth roderick rynke
February 22nd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I’m currently righting an essay for my sophmore science class. I have found that plastic bags impact our ecosystem in a very negative way. To here how many plastic bags become litter on the side of the road disgust me. Something needs to be done. Actions need to be taken.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I am doing an ecology project for my sixth grade science class and this site really helped me thank u very much
April 21st, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Yes, Plastic bags aren’t at all enviromentally friendly, but it halps us also, by keeping our food packaged and clean. we do need to reduce our plastic bags, but we cant completly abolish them until we find another biodegradeable material to keep our food clean and fresh, and a sor of shield against germs. so until we find some other material, we cant completly get rid of plastic bags.
April 27th, 2009 at 10:46 am
yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
help our enviroment
June 10th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Here in Westchester County, New York, all our garbage is incinerated and used for power generation. Thus, both paper and plastic bags go up in smoke. It’s as if the oil and trees took a side-trip as bags before being used for power. Also, remember that here in the US almost all the paper comes from trees grown in plantations, ie sustainably. On the other hand, plastic bags are lighter than paper bags and require less energy to transport. Lastly, be aware that if you drive to the supermarket then your gasoline probably uses much more oil than was needed to make the plastic in which your purchases were bagged. So your time would be better spent on fuel economy issues than on plastic supermarket bags.
As far as roadside trash is concerned, there is plenty of paper, cardboard and product packaging there too. I recently helped in my town’s cleanup day, and plastic bags were only a small amount of the garbage we picked up along the roads.
Overall, then, I don’t see any big problem with plastic bags where I live.
June 12th, 2009 at 6:30 am
I love the post above and am trying myself to help get the word out about the use of paper, plastic and other non-recycled materials. I hope that the more we infiltrate our world with the awareness of how it’s affecting their lives, the more we are likely to see change. I’m an optimist I know…
I’ve quoted and linked to your blog since these facts are great. check out my blog at http://www.orangecabbage.com where I not only take on environmental issues like these but I also review health and fitness trends to encourage people to take the easy steps to living a more balanced and earth friendly life. I’ve just started, but expect a lot more to come!
June 16th, 2009 at 6:06 am
yup…wll plastic bags do degrade our enviournment ……. we should’nt waste ‘em
June 18th, 2009 at 1:06 am
We should all be supporting the use of reusable natural fibre bags made from jute or organic cotton, especially in this the United Nations Year of Natural Fibres.
But bags and packaging of course are only part of the problem - the other half is littering behaviour of humans!
July 1st, 2009 at 7:32 am
plastics are really harmful they can even take life
July 1st, 2009 at 7:38 am
we all must folllow 3R’s
that is -
1.reduce
2.reuse
3.recycle
July 7th, 2009 at 3:19 am
Ecofasa turns waste to biodiesel using bacteria
A group of Spanish developers working for a company called Ecofasa just announced a new biofuel made up from trash. This isn’t a biodiesel made from used frying oil; instead, it’s made from general urban waste which is treated by bacteria. The result of that bacteria? Fatty acids that can be used to produce standard biodiesel. According to the company’s CEO, the process is fully biologic, competes with no feedstock and is really sustainable. However, the process doesn’t yield that much actual fuel: just one liter of biodiesel from 10 kg of trash. The project is now in a development phase, but Ecofasa said that a commercially viable model could be ready in three to four years.
http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=3225
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jh4c24qeX4
July 12th, 2009 at 3:44 am
the problem is not plastic bag but it is the littering habit of the people…
in my view it is the best thing what can be recycled. these days everything has plastic in one form or the other.. so it is better to try and change the littering habits than to just not use the bag.
why only ban the bag when everything today is packed in plastic.
we still reuse the bag our supermarket gives us but we just throw the milk pouches, the waffer pouches , shampoo bottles, water bottles, the protective covering of each and every FMCG product we buy .. will they biodegrade sooner than the plastic bag we use to carry all these things home?
u guys say plastic causes cancer. just tell me why do u then use a plastic bottle to feed babies, to store blood and for what all purposes… so u have cancer now. ??
can the paper bag replace plastic bag. NO it cannot. u all know it producin paper bag causes much more water pollution than producing plastic bags. and paper bag canot be recycled for ever.. we need to cut more and more trees for paper bags…
lets just recycle and reuse the plastic bag. and save trees, save our planet
July 12th, 2009 at 3:46 am
and one more thing to aanchal..
can u pls let us all know how plastic bag can kill. ?
August 17th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
No one can deny how much we truly do overuse plastic bags and how bad they are for our environment. But we also can’t deny that using paper bags would cause a whole new set of problems due to the loss of trees. I feel that I have finally found an alternative that I can feel REALLY good about. Nature Bags are created in Laos by several small villages of indigionous people from 100% all natural materials. They’ve been making them for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and the sale of these bags are now their only source of income. It’s a powerful story of poverty reduction and, like I said, it makes me feel good every single time I use one of these beautiful and amazingly strong bags instead of “paper or plastic”. Check them out and order one of your own! http://www.NatureBag.ORG
August 19th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
The answer is simple! Just use those ‘green bags’ that you can get. You bring a bunch of them to the supermarket and get them to put your groceries in that instead of the plastic bags they have there. And if you do get plastic bags, reuse them for other things instead of buying new bags!
September 16th, 2009 at 12:48 am
Cool Post! Very informative dude. I saw this site while browsing and think it may be relevant http://www.buygreensavvy.com . Keep up the good work!
November 7th, 2009 at 6:48 am
i found this website really helpful thank-you
November 11th, 2009 at 11:55 am
this website was very usefull and i think china should change the way they use plastic bags!!!
November 30th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
The answer to our problems is simple but not easy for most to comprehend. RECYCLE!!!! Do your part to help save our environment. Use ‘green bags’ when you go to the store and don’t waste things. If you know you can use something again please do! And you can do much more than using green bags! I’m sure that if we use our heads, even if we haven’t used them for a long time, we can come up with something to help save our slowly crumbling environment!
December 9th, 2009 at 8:06 am
It’s scary when you look at the numbers. I believe people who read your article should aware we must do something about this now. After all, we all live on the same planet.
December 30th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
We all sub-conscienciously know we have a choice to make each time we stand at the counter to pay for our shopping. To make a real difference we must all choose to say “no” to the plastic bag. With all the choices now available it is almost a sin not to choose a re-usable bag. Our Trolley Bag is just another sexy choice and we are proud to present them. Love our plant, love our Trolley Bags!
January 12th, 2010 at 10:42 am
me and brady both use plastic bags but we know we need to stop before the world comes to the end
January 17th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
Thanks for sharing these interesting facts. They are really interesting.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:00 pm
I visit this blog pretty frequently, though I rarely comment, and found this text very interesting. Thanks.