“When the bag is buried after being thrown away, the starch molecules in among the polythene are broken down by bacteria. Interestingly, Friends of the Earth concurs, saying: “Paper bags have less capacity for being reused than plastic ones and they require more energy and resources to manufacture and transport than plastic alternatives.”Biodegradable bags have been touted as the solution by some. Tesco’s spokesperson informed me that all of its shopping bags will be biodegradable by the end of the year These new bags will begin to degrade after just 60 days No more unsightly bags flapping on overhead wires then. It sounds like the perfect solution but, again, INCPEN and Friends of the Earth are in agreement.
The bags that do make it to a landfill site take up to a thousand years to biodegrade, and once they do so, they leave behind toxins that enter the soil and, potentially, aquifers.So why don’t we go back to using paper bags? “The difference environmentally between paper and plastic bags is marginal,” says Vicki Procko, of INCPEN (the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment). They ruin our parks and open spaces, flapping from trees and clinging to fences. They make up 50 per cent of the litter found on our coast, and they’re responsible for the deaths of 100,000 marine mammals and a million birds each year. Although they only make up 1 per cent of the total litter stream, by weight, they are the most visible form of pollution.
After all, if you get someone habituated to a substance – be it polythene or heroin – isn’t it your responsibility to get the person off that substance? It would be unethical to say: “We introduced you to heroin, but now we’re giving you a choice: rehab or more free heroin The choice is yours.”Plastic bags are a huge litter problem. Our approach is to educate them and offer them choices to reduce the number of carrier bags they use.”One gets a sense, however, that supermarkets are afraid of losing customers if they unilaterally adopt the strategy of charging for plastic carrier bags I fear that it may be about profits, not choice. I reminded her of the success they’d had doing just that in Ireland “It’s their strategy,” she said. “But for us, it’s something that our customers feel comfortable with and something that our customers like. “You’d just feel stupid buying plastic bags, so no one does,” an Irish friend tells me.”In Germany, plastic bags are getting a lot rarer,” says Sonja Klug, a native German. “In supermarkets you have to buy the sturdy reusable ones or the lovely linen bags.” Sonja is shocked by the profligacy of British retailers. “I say about 20 times a week: ‘No bag, please.’ I find it maddening that people get a whole bag just to carry a sandwich over the road to the office.”Perhaps banning plastic bags is a bit drastic – after all, they are useful for picking up dog crap and they make great impromptu Wellington boots – but why don’t supermarkets charge people for them? After all, a recent MORI poll showed that 63 per cent of British people would be in favour of paying 10p for plastic bags.”I think it would be a shock to the system to suddenly take them away,” said a Tesco spokesperson.
In Ireland, you have to pay 15 cents (10p) if you want a shopping bag. Since the scheme was introduced in 2002, there has been a 90 per cent drop in the use of plastic bags The Emerald Isle is no longer coated in polythene. Other countries, such as Australia, Germany and Ireland, have taken a softer approach. Bangladesh, Taiwan and South Africa have banned the manufacture and use of plastic bags outright, as have some states in India People who break the law are fined. A similar campaign in Australia led to a 25 per cent reduction in use, so Swannell has great hopes for Britain. And we certainly have a long way to go.Yet, this is not a problem without solutions.
“And that’s a conservative figure,” says Richard Swannell, of the not-for-profit company WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme). “The figure could be as high as 17 billion.”
Last week, WRAP launched a pilot project in Bristol and Edinburgh to try to educate people to reuse their plastic bags more often. It is estimated that we use 10 billion plastic carrier bags in Britain each year. By the time I finish unpacking this lot, I’ll have a small mountain of plastic bags. I’ll keep some in the perpetually overflowing plastic bag holder – where they’ll be reused as PE bags and sandwich carriers – but most will end up in the bin. The Tesco van arrives. Although my shopping list was quite short, the number of bags the driver offloads is huge I ask him to check that these groceries are for me He reads my name and address from his oversized PDA Still suspicious, I check a few of the bags.
