Time for British Columbia to ban plastic bags!

Dear Editor,

Many years ago I wrote to the City of Delta and delivered a speech to Vancouver City Council to develop a policy to reduce, reuse, and recycle

plastic shopping bags

. Some provinces in

Canada

are now even banning

plastic bags

outright. It is time for

British Columbia

politicians and policymakers to act and get rid of as much plastic use as possible.

A major problem with plastic shopping bags is that they are made with petrochemicals, a non-renewable resource. The Americans use 100 billion plastic shopping bags a year. It takes roughly 12 million barrels of oil to produce that many plastic bags.

Second, a ban on plastic shopping bags would reduce littering. In Australia, as part of a one-day cleanup event, the country collected nearly 500,000 plastic shopping bags. Each year it is estimated that 50 million plastic bags end up as litter in Australia. In Africa, windblown plastic bags are so prevalent that an industry has sprung up to weave hats and bags. One group, according to the BBC, produces 30,000 per month. In addition, the

Centre for Marine Conservation

(a non-profit organisation) states that plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups. The true cost of a plastic shopping bag, therefore, has to factor in the cleanup costs to society from littering.

Third, plastic shopping bags are a hazard to marine species and wildlife. Plastic bags result in over one hundred thousand sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year because animals mistake them for food. It also takes 20 to one thousand years for a plastic bag to decompose. This slow rate of decay compounds the problem because it allows plastic bags to accumulate and build up in the environment.

Fourth, plastic bags can clog our drains and waterways and make flooding even worse. In Bangladesh, plastic bags were identified as major factors in their problems with severe flooding. This resulted in a ban on plastic bags there in 2002.

Fifth, a very small percentage of plastic shopping bags end up being recycled or reused. According to the BBC, only 1 in 200 plastic bags in the UK are recycled. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics less than 1 per cent of plastic bags used in Australia is reused, but 82.6 per cent of Australian households say that they reuse plastic bags.

Sixth, plastic bags are flimsy and often do not stand up as well as paper or cloth. Each high-quality reusable bag you use has the potential to eliminate an average of one thousand bags over its lifetime. The bag will pay for itself if your grocery stores offer a five or ten cent credit per bag for bringing in your own bag.

Last, unsupervised infants can suffocate from plastic shopping bags.

Many countries and jurisdictions around the world have taken steps to reduce or ban the use of plastic bags. In British Columbia, the Real Canadian Superstore in Langford on southern Vancouver Island became the first major retailer to ban plastic shopping bags. The Superstore mailed each household a free

reusable green bag

and a coupon for a free green box with a minimum $25.00 purchase. In Paris, a ban on plastic bags will take effect in late 2007 and a nationwide ban will take effect on Jan 1, 2010. In Ireland, a 22-cent levy on every plastic shopping bag led to a 95 per cent reduction in use and increased use in reusable bags. In South Africa, the environment and tourism minister instituted minimum thickness guidelines to increase the plastic bags reusability, increase their cost, and recyclability.

In the UK some retailers offer points to people who bring their own bags. In the United States, at least 30 villages and towns in Alaska have banned plastic shopping bags. Last, Zanzibar banned the import and use of plastic shopping bags in Nov 2006 largely to protect its tourism industry.

I hope British Columbia will consider banning the plastic shopping bag. It is only a relatively recent modern invention. We lived without plastic for centuries. The people used baskets and cloth bags and other creative carrying methods for thousands of years. We can use

biodegradable bags

made from hemp oil, soybean oil, or corn starch, cloth bags, or bags made from recycled paper.

British Columbia, like San Francisco, London, and Paris can set an example for the rest of Canada and ban the plastic bag. It would be the right moral and ethical thing to do to curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce landfill waste and protect birds and wildlife from ingesting toxic plastic materials and contaminating our food chain. You all have an opportunity to make a difference to protect the environment. I hope you will grasp this opportunity.