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The plastic bag is an icon of convenience culture, by some estimates the single most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, numbering in the trillions. Plastic bags start as crude oil, natural gas, or other petrochemical derivatives, which are transformed into chains of hydrogen and carbon molecules known as polymers or polymer resin. After being heated, shaped, and cooled, the plastic is ready to be flattened, sealed, punched, or printed on.
Everyday in our daily activities, we use plastic bag to carry groceries, clothing, and other routine purchases. However, do we really realize the significant problems of plastic bags to our environment? Here are some hazards of plastic bags. Unlike many other materials we use, plastic is very slow to break down. Some suggest it can take up hundred of years for plastic bags to totally disintegrate in a land-fill site. Other problems with plastic bags are that they are often blown by the wind and end up in lakes, rivers, or fields and forests. In addition to being unsightly, they are a hazard to wild life, because animals can mistake them for food. Floating bags can look all too much like tasty jellyfish to hungry marine critters. According to the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Society, more than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year from eating or getting entangled in plastic. The conservation group estimates that 50% of all marine litter is some form of plastic. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean. Besides, plastic bag is photodegradable, meaning that the sun eventually breaks them into tiny toxic particles which contaminate the soil and waterways, ultimately go into our food and drinking water.
Realizing the significance of plastic bag to our environment, it is a right way for Selangor State Government to declare Selangor as zero plastic bag within a year time. Now, it is the time for the state government to formulate strategies on how to achieve this target. From my point of view, some strategies as following could assist us to have a pastic bag free environment:
· Introduce legislation to tax or ban plastic bags. Some governments have already make laws to reduce the use of plastic bags. For example, Ireland was the first country to introduce a plastic tax of 15 cents per bag in March 2002. The revenue was redirected to environmentally friendly projects. This tax successfully reduced the use of plastic bags by about 90 percent. Meanwhile, in the early 1990s, the Ladakh Women's Alliance and other citizens groups led a successful campaign to ban plastic bags in that Indian province, where the first of May is now celebrated as “Plastic Ban Day.”
· Introduce reusable cotton shopping bags to replace plastic bags. These bags can be used for years and be washed when necessary. When they eventually wear out they can be disposed of and they will break down naturally.
· Industry players such as hypermarkets and retailers should voluntarily encouraging shoppers to forgo plastic bags, or to bring their own bags by offering a small per bag refund or charging extra for plastic.
· Manufacturers should introduced biodegradable or compostable plastic bags made from starches, polymers or poly-lactic acid, and no polyethylene.
· Create public awareness by having “Plastic Bag Free Campaign”. It is to create the awareness among public about the hazard of public bags. Signs declaring the markets plastic bag-free initiative are displayed at the two main entrance points to the marketplace. Reminders for patrons to bring their own shopping bags are also included in the advertisement
As a responsible resident and to conserve our environment from plastic hazard, we should actively respond and support the campaigns held by government to ensure that the target is achieved. We should think twice about taking a plastic bag when our purchase is small and easy to carry. We also should keep permanent shopping bags in our home, office, and car so we can always have them available when we go to the supermarket or other stores.
Let us work together towards plastic free environment. It is our responsibility to pave the way to cleaner and safer planet for the coming generation. Always remember, every plastic bag we have ever used in our entire life will still exists in some form, even fragmented bits, and will exist long after we are dead.
