It’s in the bag

24 March 2011

Following a meeting of EU Environment Ministers in Brussels recently, the EU Environment Commissioner, Janez Potocnik, has announced that an investigation into plastic waste in the environment is to be launched. This includes the intention of the Commission to launch an impact assessment and ‘the possibility of a Europe-wide ban on plastic bags’.

In Wales, the Welsh Assembly has decided to impose a 5p tax on all single-use carrier bags. However, since this was imposed, a report has been published by the UK Environment Agency which shows that plastic carrier bags are not the scourge they were thought to be. The Carrier Bag Consortium is now calling on the Welsh Assembly to abandon this levy.

The UK Environment Agency carried out a Life Cycle Analysis of plastic carrier bags and came to the conclusion that they are generally less damaging to the environment than alternatives. Single-use HDPE bags are, for each use, almost 200 times less damaging to the climate than cotton ‘bags for life’, and have less than one third of the CO2 emissions than paper bags that are given out by some retailers, it says. It also states that ‘starch-polyester blend bags have a higher global warming potential than conventional polymer bags, due to the increased weight of material in a bag, higher material-production impacts and a higher end-of-life impact in landfill’.

The researchers concluded: “The HDPE bag had the lowest environmental impacts of the single use options in nine of the 10 impact categories.”

It was also mentioned that most disposable bags are used again within the household, as bin liners, for example. The report found that 76% of lightweight plastic bags were re-used, and that 53% of households re-used them as kitchen bin liners. As well as this, consumers are re-using plastic bags for shopping (although a report from the USA last year warned against this, because of the risk of bacterial contamination).

Degradable polyethylene manufacturer CFN Packaging has welcomed the research. Director Jayson Clark says that plastic bags have been getting a needlessly bad press in recent years. “Worrying about plastic bags misses the point and distracts consumers from making bigger changes to their habits which would do more to benefit the environment,” he says.

However, as is so often the case, the human element has not been taken into account. Littering, I believe, is still a problem when it comes to plastic carrier bags. I have had one fluttering in a tall tree in my garden for about five years now, and I can’t see a way of getting rid of it!

Maureen Byrne,

Editor


Maureen Byrne



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