Did you know ... ?

• The world uses between 500 billion and 1.2 trillion bags per year, around 1 million bags per minute [reusablebags.com]
• On average, we use each plastic bag for 12-20 minutes before we dispose of it [guardian.co.uk, telegraph.co.uk]
• Each bag takes around 400 year to degrade.[packagingknowledge.com]
• Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest. [ecorightbags.com]
• About 1 in every 200 bags is recycled [packagingknowledge.com]
• In 1995, more than 70% of the total litter reported in dredge samples from the continental shelf along the French and Spanish Atlantic Coast was plastic bags. [Galgani et al, 1995]
• During a survey of floating marine debris conducted in the South East Pacific plastic bags far outnumbered other items at 47.6% of all items. [plasticbagfree.com]
• Plastic bag litter kills at least 100,000 marine animals every year [ecorightbags.com]
• Once an animals dies from either entanglement or plastic ingestion, their bodies decompose and the plastic is released back into the environment where it can kill again.
• In 2001, Ireland consumed 1.2 billion plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag consumption tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%. Approximately 18,000,000 litres of oil have been saved due to this reduced production. Governments around the world are considering implementing similar measures. [Republic of Ireland Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government]

So what does that all mean to the retailers and residents of the Deepings?

• In the UK, we use about 300 bags per person per year [biggreenswitch.co.uk]
• The average UK home uses approx 4457 kwh electricity per year [http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/statistics/regional/index.html] which produces around 1917 Kg Co2 [http://www.nef.org.uk/greencompany/co2calculator.htm]
• The production of 5 plastic bags uses around 1 Kg of Co2 [http://timeforchange.org/what-is-a-carbon-footprint-definition]
• Therefore, the Co2 used in the production of Deeping’s bags is equivalent to the Co2 produced in powering 417 households for a year
• In the March 08 budget, the government announced that retailers may be forced to charge for bags from early 2009 unless ‘sufficient progress’ is made. If a charge is enforced of 5p per bag, you only need to use 20-25 bags before it would be as cheap to buy a reusable bag which can last for years.
• If we managed to make The Deepings Plastic Bag Free, our community alone would stop/eliminate the use of around 4 Million bags per year!

What alternatives are there to plastic packaging?

There are two main categories of plastic bag alternatives – reusable bags and biodegradable bags. Hopefully, reusable bags can be used by most people for most things. However, there are going to be situations where a plastic-bag alternative might be needed (e.g. for hygiene reasons). A large proportion of the plastic-bag ‘alternatives’ still contain some proportion of plastic so here are some definitions that can help to find the right bag:

(Thanks to the Plastic Bag Free Hebden Bridge Bag Ladies for these definitions)

Compostable:

Materials that are capable of undergoing biological decomposition in a compost site, to the extent that they are not visually distinguishable and break down to carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass, at a rate consistent with known compostable materials (e.g. cellulose). Compostable materials leave no toxic residue and therefore, the resulting humus is a safe and healthy contribution to soil.
In order to be classified compostable, the degradation must meet certain specified criteria such as rate biodegradation, maximum residue of material left at a specific point in time and a requirement for the material to have no harmful impact on the final compost or the composting process. All compostable plastic is therefore also biodegradable. The most commonly used standards for compostable plastic are the American standard ASTM #D6400-99, the European standard EN-13432 and DIN V-54900.
The important thing to remember with a compostable plastic bag is that when you can no longer use it (and you can re-use them!) then you need to compost what’s left.

Biodegradable:

Materials that will degrade from the action of naturally occurring micro-organisms, such as bacteria, fungi etc. Biodegradable material is not necessarily compostable, as the residue may be toxic and is, therefore, not considered compostable. For biodegradation to take place the micro-organisms also need oxygen and moisture.
A few things to know when a bag is labelled ‘biodegradable’.

• The conditions have to be right for a bag to biodegrade. If the conditions aren’t right; the bag won’t biodegrade well. Conditions are generally not right in your bin; landfill sites; the local river; the sea or up a tree. Typically it can take years for biodegradation to occur in a landfill, if it happens at all.
• IF a bag biodegrades, it may still leave a toxic residue.
• ‘Biodegradable’ plastic is bad news for recycling. It is not recommended to mix ‘biodegradable’ plastic with ‘normal’ plastic. If plastic recycling is contaminated with ‘biodegradable’ plastic the subsequent product could be corrupted and weakened.
• ‘Biodegradable’ bags are not the answer to environmental plastic bag litter because the conditions required for full biodegradation are not met.

Photo-degrade:

To break down by the action of natural daylight. Plastic that can only be broken down in this way just gets smaller and smaller but still remains a plastic.

Degradable:

A confusing term because it is used in different ways. All of the above processes are forms of degradation. If someone says that they have a degradable product, ask them how it degrades. It may be that you’ve found a great product which composts. On the other hand it may be a product that just, well, degrades. Degrade just means to break something down. You can degrade something by tearing it up into smaller and smaller pieces. So, most things are degradable. On its own this term says nothing about how long it may take or what is left in the end. When it comes to plastic what is left in the end are lots of small pieces of plastic.

It really doesn't take much to make a difference - please don't throw your bags away when you next visit the supermarket - keep them in the cupboard under the sink and take them out with you when you next go shopping. By this simple act alone you can make a massive difference and MakeDeepingGreen.

Please visit our resource page and download our factsheet.