Could Port Douglas become plastic-bag free?
Friday March 27 2015, 4:30pm
A Facebook post may lead to Port Douglas becoming a plastic bag-free community.
Bendigo Bank Port Douglas manager Helen De Ross posed on ‘The Original Port Douglas Buy, Swap and Sell’ page on Wednesday asking if page members would support Port Douglas becoming a plastic bag-free community.
The post received an immediate and overwhelmingly positive response, gaining over 200 likes and more than 50 comments in less than 48 hours.
The Douglas Shire Sustainability Group (DSSG), headed up by Kevin ‘K-Star’ Eldridge, has gotten behind the idea and will raise it at their AGM at 6:30pm next Wednesday at the Mossman CWA Hall.
CORRECTION: The AGM is to be held Wednesday April 1
Anyone interested in the issue is invited to attend.
Kevin Eldridge said there needed to be a fundamental shift in thinking toward plastic bags.
“The problem is that we really look at plastic bags as one-use items and we need to change that paradigm,” he said.
“A lot of people are re-using their plastic bags but plenty are still just throwing them away and they have to go somewhere, either into landfill or eventually into the ocean.
“The huge suppot that has been shown on this post alone shows that the people of Port Douglas want to get behind this idea.
“The DSSG has this as an agenda item and will be forming a committee with a ‘ban the bag’ working group to begin immediately.”
Banning the plastic bag from Port Douglas is be a noble goal but it might not be as easy as first thought, warns Heidi Taylor from environmental cleanup organisation Tangaroa Blue.
“I think it’s a great idea, but as soon as you try it in a community that has a big supermarket like Coles or Woolies you hit a big stumbling block,” she said.
“The big supermarkets have national or state-level policies that include the use of plastic bags because they want to be able to keep prices down as much as possible - for example Target actually re-introduced the use of plastic bags after going green for a while in response to consumer complaints.
“We’ve seen it done before where a community can aim for taking out 50 per cent of the plastic bags in the first year, then 75 per cent in the next year and so on and so forth, if they try to do it 100 per cent or nothing in the first try, they invariably have big problems.
“Another key thing is education of public, particularly on the difference between degradable, biodegradable and compostable plastic bags - the first two just mean that the bag will quickly break down into its original components, which may or may not be harmful or toxic. Compostible bags will break down into natural original components, which can be absorbed back into the earth.”
For more information on plastic bags the environment, check the Tangaroa Blue website under the ‘Resources’ tab.