Skip the plastic bag today, Plastic Bag Free Day, in solidarity with our battered environment.
People are so used to carrying their things around in plastic bags that they’ve totally taken them for granted. However, looking at the state of the environment these days it’s important that people start taking notice of the impact they have on the world and search for alternatives to harmful plastic bags. And Plastic Bag Free Day is the perfect day to start doing just that.
Did you know?
1. 160 000 plastic bags are used globally every second.
2. Five trillion plastic bags are produced every year globally. Put together, they can encircle the world seven times.]
3. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is a floating island of garbage twice the size of Texas, is composed mostly of plastic.
4. In 2008 a sperm whale was found beached in California. It died due to 22 kilogrammes of plastic in its stomach.
5. Plastic isn’t biodegradable. In fact, plastic only starts degrading after 700 years and will only be fully degraded after 1000 years. That means that all the plastic ever produced still isn’t degraded.
6. Plastic bags remain toxic even after they break down. It doesn’t biodegrade, it photo-degrades. Which means that means that after it degrades, it breaks down into smaller and smaller toxic bits of itself – and bleeds and contaminates the environment.
7. Only one to three per cent of plastic bags is recycled world wide.
8. The Pacific North Ocean accounts for six times more plastic debris than plankton.
9. Plastic bags are made from petroleum, natural gas and other chemicals. Its production is toxic to the environment.
You can help by slowly stopping the use of plastic bags. You can start by not taking plastic bags at the supermarket, but instead use your own alternative bags. You can also start recycling the plastic bags you own instead of throwing them away. Educate your children on the importance of looking after the environment and teach them alternatives to using plastic bags.
What will you use instead of plastic bags?
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