How many plastic bags do you use a week?
When I
wrote that the issue of plastic waste in the ocean is a problem that needs to
be fixed by individuals, businesses and countries together, it’s all a circle.
Let’s say
if all businesses stop producing plastic, or let’s just talk about single-use
plastic. Us as individuals would just have to adjust, because there is no
supply anymore. But, this is not the case, a lot of businesses are trying to
create solutions, but there is still a lot of single-use plastic available that us as individuals need to stop using. When that happens more and more businesses
are forced to find a solution to keep the customers.
The same
goes for countries, which are basically large businesses. A lot of the plastic
waste that is being directly dumped into the ocean and rivers are from areas in
Asia, and then Africa and Latin America. The reason being is because of a
less developed infrastructure and garbage waste system, than for example in North
America, Europe, and Australia. The amount of people in those areas of Asia with
the amount of plastic consumption, is making the garbage system not able to keep
up, and the majority of the trash ends up in the water.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-crisis/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-crisis/
You might not
know about this, but there is actually a lot of countries that have banned single-use
plastic, mostly plastic bags. There are bans, taxes, or extra charges to
decrease the use of plastic bags, and it actually works.
https://www.earthday.org/2018/04/20/10-cities-and-countries-confronting-plastic-bag-pollution-head-on/
In China for example, the ban was introduced in 2008 and since then the plastic bag waste has reduced between 60-80%. That’s a lot considering the population of China. They still struggle with enforcement issues, which is not hard to understand considering the amount of people that live there, but it is still a very good number, and it seems to work wherever a ban is introduced.
A lot more countries than I expected, which is a good thing! |
As you can see, a lot of countries in Africa has a complete ban - And Rwanda has been announced cleanest country in Africa |
Another
example is Denmark which has the lowest plastic bag usage in Europe, they
average only 4 plastic bags a year!!! If I go to Walmart they will pack four
items in four plastic bags it feels like!
So how does danes go grocery shopping you might
think, what if they buy more items than they expected and can’t fit it in the bag that they brought. National Geographic wrote an article about it. Go in and
read, because this is what all countries should strive for when it comes to the
crazy amount of plastic bags that are being used each day. Danes Use Far Fewer Plastic Bags Than Americans—Here's How
Sure, we use
plastic bags to throw out our garbage, but there are solutions for that too.
And I’m sure a lot of people are sick of the number of plastic bags you’ve
collected through the years that are just laying stuffed in some cupboard or
drawer in the kitchen.
Hope this was a little wake up call for not using too many plastic bags in the future!
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