Plastic bags are popular with consumers and retailers as they are a functional, lightweight, strong, cheap, and hygienic way to transport food and other products. Approximately 6.9 billion plastic bags are consumed annually in Australia:
- 6 billion of these are high density polyethylene (HDPE), such as supermarket singlet bags or supermarket checkout bags.
- 0.9 billion are low density polyethylene (LDPE), such as boutique bags.
- 67% of HDPE & 25% of LDPE bags are imported with the remainder locally produced.
There are two major environmental problems associated with our use of plastic bags.
Firstly, plastic bags are one of the most damaging forms of litter.
- At least 80 million plastic bags end up as litter on our beaches, streets and parks each year
- While they are estimated to only be 2% of the litter stream, they have a significant environmental impact because they can take up to 1,000 years to break down.
- Their persistence in the environment means that they can entangle and harm marine life and other animals. In fact, the World Wide Fund for Nature estimates that more than 100,000 whales, seals, turtles, and birds die every year as a result of plastic bags.
- For example, on 24 August 2000, a Bryde's whale died in Trinity Bay, 2 km from central Cairns. An autopsy found that the whale's stomach was tightly packed with plastic, including supermarket bags, food packages, bait bags, three large sheets of plastic, and fragments of garbage bags. There was no food in its stomach. When the dead animal decays, the plastic bags are freed to be re-ingested by other animals in years to come.
- On land, plastic bag litter can block drains and trap birds. They also kill livestock. One farmer near Mudgee NSW, carried out an autopsy on a dead calf and found 8 plastic bags in its stomach. The loss of this calf cost the farmer around $500.
- Cleaning up this litter is expensive. Australian local and state governments spend over $200 million a year picking up litter (all forms).
Source: Federal Department of Environment & Heritage website
Secondly, the plastic shopping bag, a single use item, is a symbol of a wasteful society:
- 20 million Australians used 6.7 billion plastic checkout bags this year (down from 6.9 billion the previous year). That's nearly 1 plastic bag per person per day or 345 bags per person per year.
- A person's use of a plastic checkout bag can be counted in minutes - however long it takes to get from the shops to their homes.
- The amount of petroleum used to make one plastic bag would drive a car about 115 metres. The 6.9 billion plastic checkout bags we use every year is enough to drive a car 800 million kilometres or nearly 20,000 times around the world - i.e. 4 round trips to the Sun.
- Less than 3% of Australia's plastic bags are currently being recycled, despite recycling facilities being available at major supermarkets.
- Only an estimated 19% of the 3.7 billion plastic supermarket shopping bags handed out in Australia every year, are being reused by households as kitchen bin liners.
- In many council areas, plastic bags are the single main contaminant of kerbside recycling.
- Plastic bags are not free to consumers - they are actually adding an estimated $173 million a year to Australia's grocery bills.
Source: Planet Ark
While these facts paint a grim picture, an October 2003 Roy Morgan study showed that 87% of Australians were concerned about the impact plastic bags have on the environment. In addition, action is being taken to reduce the impact of plastic bags, for example:
- Coles Bay in Tasmania have successfully banned plastic checkout bags in all their retail stores.
- Under an agreement between the Federal Government and the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), retailers have until December 2004 to reduce their consumption of lightweight single use plastic checkout bags by 25%. This rises to 50% by December 2005.
For more plastic bag facts see: