Bob Piper has been a Labour Councillor for the Abbey
Ward in Sandwell, West Midlands, for 10 years. He is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club and a follower of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
The views expressed here are mine in a personal capacity, not those of the Labour Party, Sandwell MBC, Aston Villa or Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Get it! Mine... just mine!
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
Promoted by Bob Piper of 115 Barclay Rd, B67 5JZ on behalf of the Labour Party, care of 39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA . Hosted (printed) by Swaithe Internet Solutions who are not responsible for any of the contents of these posts.
Please note however, that The Labour Party is not responsible for the content of this website or individual posts as, unless specifically stated, I am writing solely in a personal and individual capacity.
180 million
Roughly the number of plastic shopping bags distributed in San Francisco each year.
2 to 3 cents
Amount each bag costs markets, compared with anywhere from 5 to 10 cents for a biodegradable bag.
4 trillion to 5 trillion
Number of nondegradable plastic bags used worldwide annually.
430,000 gallons
Amount of oil needed to produce 100 million nondegradable plastic bags.
So much fuss over a non-issue. It might look impressive to do the stats on non-degradable plastic bags - but, as the price of the degradable ones suggests, the manufacturing impact of these is at least as high, if not higher.
They also introduce another problem - more litter - as these bags break up into smaller pieces as they 'degrade'.
Wouldn't if make more sense to target the litter, and hence all litter?
Some of the statistics are quite incredible indeed.
There has been a bit of a push in the UK to try and get people to be more concious of how many bags they are using, e.g. by the likes of Lidl charging per bag and tesco offering incentives of clubcard points for reusing bags (i think). Also, sainsbury have new bags that are apparently recycled.
Either way, as the article points out a little bit, banning plastic bags is just going to cause other problems, and as a result, i would say is not the answer. Yes get people to be more concious and encourage the use of compostable bags made of corn starch or bags made of recyclable paper.
Re: the oil statistic, 100 million plastic bags aren't all that you would get from 430,000 gallons of oil. Distilling or cracking the crude oil would produce a vast array of hydro-carbons. What they are saying is that you would get enough of whatever it is they make plastic carrier bags from. If they didn't use this to make plastic bags what would they make? They have to distill/crack the oil to get all the other bits and bobs they need anyway.
March 30, 2007 12:00 AM | permalink
So much fuss over a non-issue. It might look impressive to do the stats on non-degradable plastic bags - but, as the price of the degradable ones suggests, the manufacturing impact of these is at least as high, if not higher.
They also introduce another problem - more litter - as these bags break up into smaller pieces as they 'degrade'.
Wouldn't if make more sense to target the litter, and hence all litter?
Gerard, Sydney, Australia