Please pledge your support today to help save the oceans, it's precious marine life and keep Australia beautiful for future generations to come.
Plastic in the oceans. It's a mammoth problem. Experts predict that there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050.
We need to tackle this issue in building blocks, making gradual changes, consumers, businesses and the government working together.
A great place to start is reducing the amount of plastic that is handed out in the first place, and plastic bags are a HUGE contributor here. Plastic bags not only pollute the ocean with plastic, but are also the cause of a slow and painful death for many marine species, including critically endangered marine turtles and migratory birds. Plastic bags, when floating in the water, pose as a tasty jelly fish to whales, dolphins and turtles. Sadly, these creatures cannot digest plastic and it sits in their stomachs, creating the illusion that they are full. In the end, this causes death by starvation.
Many of us have already adopted reusable bags to do our grocery shopping, which is great, but many more people need to take responsibility and make this change.
New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia are the last states to take up the Ban the Bag challenge, with Queensland stepping up in 2018.
After a mixed reception, England put a 5p (about 10 cents) charge on single use plastic carrier bag. This decision led to an 83% reduction in carrier bags being distributed in supermarkets, approximately a drop from 7.64 billion bags to 640 million. England is not the only country to have succeeded in a reduction of single use plastic bags by using a levy - France, China, Scotland, Bangladesh and Mexico are just some of the countries that have used a similar technique.
Australians use 3.92 billion plastic bags a year, that's over 10 million new bags being used every day. An estimated 3.76 billion bags or 20,700 tonnes of plastic are disposed of in landfill sites throughout Australia every year. Australians dump 7,150 recyclable plastic bags into landfills every minute or 429,000 bags every hour. (http://www.cleanup.org.au)
Another completely unnecessary source of plastic pollution is the small clips that are used on the plastic bagged bread in Australia, an industry worth $4.7 billion. These clips may seem small, but think how many clips $4.7bn would buy you.
Let's work together and make a start putting things right. We broke it, so we must fix it! Sign your name now to show your support, tell the Premier and the Minister for the Environment it's time to step up!
Thank you 'Say no to plastic bags eco peaceful living Pinterest' for the photo.
