NO MORE SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAGS
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” Gen 1:20
Plastic bags start out as fossil fuels and end up as deadly waste in landfills and the ocean. Birds often mistake shredded plastic bags for food, filling their stomachs with toxic debris. For hungry sea turtles, it’s nearly impossible to distinguish between jellyfish and floating plastic shopping bags. Fish eat thousands of tons of plastic a year, transferring it up the food chain to bigger fish and marine mammals.
Retail giants continue to use them for nearly every purchase made in their stores
10 Facts About Single-use Plastic Bags
- Worldwide we use 500 billion plastic bags per year. That is one million per minute
- Fewer than one in seven plastic bags are recycled
- It only takes 14 plastic bags for the equivalent of the petrol needed to drive one kilometre
- Up to 80% of ocean plastic pollution enters the ocean from land
- At least 267 different species are killed by plastic bags annually
- 100,000 marine animals are killed by plastic bags every year
- One in three sea turtles have been found with plastic in their stomachs
- Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes
- It takes 500 years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill.
- Plastic bags don’t break down, they break up into microplastics that continue to pollute the land or ocean.
What can we do?
Step One:
Bring your own bag for grocery shopping. All it takes is to remember before you go shopping. Buy some fold up bags to keep in your handbag or backpack for those unexpected buys. If you forget your bag, ask for a box.
Step Two:
Ask your local supermarket to stop using single use plastic. You can write to the manager
Step Three:
Get involved in a national ban campaign to ban the single use plastic bag. If you can’t find one, start one! The following countries have already banned single use plastic bags – Rwanda, Kenya, Morocco, Bali, Taiwan and France
References
www.getaway.co.za/travel-news/countries-that-have-banned-plastic/
#rethinkthebag #bringyourownbag #beatplasticpollution #greenanglicans #iamanglican