by Anna McGuire  

Most of us have that ever-present pile of plastic bags in the cupboard or stuffed into the bottom drawer. Even those who always take their own reusable bags shopping may find that these bags mysteriously appear and multiply in unseen corners, eventually overflowing from their hiding place.

From there, the lucky ones may escape and make their annual migration to the Coral Sea and perhaps on to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

It’s difficult to avoid plastic bags in this plastic world of ours, where plastic items so often come packaged in plastic and are placed in a plastic bag before you can blink an eye.

But going plastic bag free is a good first step in trying to reduce the layers of plastic piling up on our lives, our landfills, and our oceans...and rest assured it can be done.

With some quick “no bag thanks” reflexes and a bit of creativity, you can succeed in making your life that little bit less plastic.

Why bother going bag free?

• The average plastic bag is used for about 12 minutes but takes up to 1000 years to break down.
• Plastic kills 1 million sea birds and 100,000 sea mammals each year.
• Australians use over 4 billion plastic bags each year, most of these ending up in landfill, contributing to growing waste disposal problems.

But it’s not my bags choking turtles!

If you think it’s not your plastic bags ending up in the oceans, think again: your plastic bags can ‘escape’ from bins, waste trucks and landfill sites and end up in our rivers and oceans via stormwater drains. So each plastic shopping bag that you use might just end up in a sea turtle’s stomach.

Confused by ‘degradable’ versus ‘biodegradable’?

• The ‘degradable’ plastic bags that are commonly used in supermarkets are still made from petrochemicals and are not necessarily any better for the environment. These bags have an additive that makes them break apart more quickly when exposed to direct sunlight or heat. They do not biodegrade, but instead break apart into smaller and smaller plastic pieces which accumulate in the environment.
  
  
• 'Biodegradable’ bags are not made of petrochemicals, but are instead made of plant starch, often corn. These bags biodegrade, meaning that they break down into natural elements like carbon and water. They can still pose a threat to marine life if they end up in the sea, but are a better option than regular plastic bags.

Where do plastic bags go for recycling?

You can take your plastic bags to major supermarkets for recycling. From there they are transported to Brisbane, then overseas (usually to China) for recycling into low grade plastic items.

Recycling your plastic bags is better than putting them in the bin, but beware: the process is not as environmentally friendly as you might think — it involves a lot of energy, emissions, heat, and chemicals, and the end product is always of poorer quality than the original material.

Think Outside the Bag

The best choice is to take your own reusable bag when you go shopping. Using a reusable bag of any description is environmentally better than using disposable plastic bags. Natural fibre reusable bags (such as cotton or bamboo) are the best option.

The Cairns and Far North Environment Centre recently kick-started the Think Outside the Bag project, which aims to encourage a phase-out of plastic bags in a couple of areas in the far north.

One of these areas is Port Douglas, where we’re excited to be working with the Douglas Shire Sustainability Group and Tangaroa Blue. This project is about encouraging shoppers and businesses to shift away from the disposable bag culture and towards reusable bags, which just makes sense, especially as our local economy is based on nature-based tourism.

Keep an eye out for this project which will hopefully soon pop up in a shop near you. Check out our website www.cafnec.org.au for more details.

Anna McGuire is the Sustainability & Climate Change Campaigner at the Cairns & Far North Environment Centre.