Green Campaign
According to "National Geographic News" (2003), an estimate by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States, reveals that approximately consumed each year worldwide, between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags. Less than 1% of the bags is recycled: It's more expensive to recycle a bag than to produce a new one. According to Jared Blumenfeld, Director of the Department of the Environment in San Francisco,
"There's harsh economics behind bag recycling plastic bags. Process and recycle one ton of plastic bags cost $ 4,000 =: the same amount sold in the commodities market to $ 32 = ".
So ... Where Do They Go?
A study by the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, showed oceangoing vessels together dumped 8 million pounds of plastic into the sea every year. The reason why the world's landfills were not overflowing with plastic was because most ended up in the ocean.
Bags find their way to the sea from storm drains and pipes of the urban centers. The bags are carried to different parts of our land and to our seas, lakes and rivers. Plastic bags have been found floating north of the Arctic Circle near Spitzbergen, and even farther south, in the Falkland Islands. According to the Waste Monitoring Program of the U.S. Navy, plastic bags account for more than 10% of the waste arriving at the edge of the costs.
photodegrade plastic bags, with the passage of time is broken down into smaller petrochemical and toxic polymers which eventually contaminate soils and waterways. As a consequence microscopic particles can form part of the food chain. According to report from the WWF in 2005, the effect on wildlife can be catastrophic.
Nearly 200 different species of marine life including whales, dolphins, seals and turtles die from plastic bags. They die after ingesting plastic bags which they mistake for food.
So ... What do we do?
If we use a cloth bag, we can save 6 bags a week. That's 24 bags a month. In other words, 288 bags a year. That is, 22,176 bags during an average lifetime. If only 1 in 5 people in the U.S. did this, would save 1,330,560,000,000 bags over a lifetime.
Bangladesh banned plastic bags. China banned free plastic bags. Ireland was the first in Europe to tax plastic bags in 2002. Thus, reduced consumption by 90%. In 2005, Rwanda has banned bags plastic. Israel, Canada, western India, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan and Singapore have also banned or are in the process of banning plastic bags. On March 27, 2007, San Francisco became the first U.S. city. UU. to ban plastic bags.
Plastic bags are made from polyethylene: a thermoplastic that is obtained from petroleum. Reducing plastic bags will reduce the dependence on oil. China will save 37 million barrels of oil each year due to the ban on free plastic bags.
may do something drastic, cut the plastic!
AVOID THE USE OF PLASTIC BAGS.
According to "National Geographic News" (2003), an estimate by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States, reveals that approximately consumed each year worldwide, between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags. Less than 1% of the bags is recycled: It's more expensive to recycle a bag than to produce a new one. According to Jared Blumenfeld, Director of the Department of the Environment in San Francisco,
"There's harsh economics behind bag recycling plastic bags. Process and recycle one ton of plastic bags cost $ 4,000 =: the same amount sold in the commodities market to $ 32 = ".
So ... Where Do They Go?
A study by the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, showed oceangoing vessels together dumped 8 million pounds of plastic into the sea every year. The reason why the world's landfills were not overflowing with plastic was because most ended up in the ocean.
Bags find their way to the sea from storm drains and pipes of the urban centers. The bags are carried to different parts of our land and to our seas, lakes and rivers. Plastic bags have been found floating north of the Arctic Circle near Spitzbergen, and even farther south, in the Falkland Islands. According to the Waste Monitoring Program of the U.S. Navy, plastic bags account for more than 10% of the waste arriving at the edge of the costs.
photodegrade plastic bags, with the passage of time is broken down into smaller petrochemical and toxic polymers which eventually contaminate soils and waterways. As a consequence microscopic particles can form part of the food chain. According to report from the WWF in 2005, the effect on wildlife can be catastrophic.
Nearly 200 different species of marine life including whales, dolphins, seals and turtles die from plastic bags. They die after ingesting plastic bags which they mistake for food.
So ... What do we do?
If we use a cloth bag, we can save 6 bags a week. That's 24 bags a month. In other words, 288 bags a year. That is, 22,176 bags during an average lifetime. If only 1 in 5 people in the U.S. did this, would save 1,330,560,000,000 bags over a lifetime.
Bangladesh banned plastic bags. China banned free plastic bags. Ireland was the first in Europe to tax plastic bags in 2002. Thus, reduced consumption by 90%. In 2005, Rwanda has banned bags plastic. Israel, Canada, western India, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan and Singapore have also banned or are in the process of banning plastic bags. On March 27, 2007, San Francisco became the first U.S. city. UU. to ban plastic bags.
Plastic bags are made from polyethylene: a thermoplastic that is obtained from petroleum. Reducing plastic bags will reduce the dependence on oil. China will save 37 million barrels of oil each year due to the ban on free plastic bags.
may do something drastic, cut the plastic!
AVOID THE USE OF PLASTIC BAGS.
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