Bag it in plastic? Or go the environmentally-friendly route and invest in reusable bags?

This is the quandary many states are battling with and the deeper you delve into the harmful effects on the environment, plastic bags should clearly be phased out. It’s had success in South Australia, and this should be the benchmark for the rest of the country.

As the checkout clerk packs your groceries and other items in a plastic bag, your thoughts may not necessarily be focused on the damage a single bag will cause once it has left the store. Some of the facts are startling.

According to the Australian Government’s Department of Environment; in 2007, Australians used 3.9 billion lightweight single use high density polyethylene (HDPE) bags. 2.96 billion of these came from supermarkets, while the others were used by fast food restaurants, service stations, convenience stores and liquor stores and other shops.  

They add that millions of these bags end up as litter and find their way on to our streets, parks and into our waterways. Once these bags find their way into the sea, the consequences are fatal.

According to the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority, a great variety of animals, on land and especially marine, can choke to death on bags, experiencing much pain and distress. If swallowed whole, animals may not be able to digest real food and die a slow death from starvation or infection.

PlanetArk says in the marine environment, plastic bag litter is lethal, killing tens of thousands of birds, whales, seals and turtles every year as they often mistake plastic bags for food such as jellyfish.

After an animal is killed by a plastic bag its body decomposes and the plastic is released back into the environment where it can kill again. They revealed that a Bryde's whale died on a Cairns beach after ingesting six square metres of plastic.

There is sufficient evidence to argue that this needs to be addressed.
It is therefore encouraging that the Queensland Government is considering a ban on single-use plastic bags in Queensland in a bid to reduce the amount of pollution entering waterways and taking a toll on marine life.

Environment Minister Steven Miles said there is more litter in Queensland than in any other state, with discarded rubbish recorded at levels almost 40 per cent above the national average.

This then raises the issue of garbage finding its way on to our pristine Four-Mile beach, streets and walkways. The Minister’s revelation is underlined every morning while walking our dogs.

What shocked me more than the countless beer cans, bottles and bags scattered along the sidewalk, was the audacity of someone who deposited their mandarin peels on the ground five metres from a garbage bin.

On the subject of dogs, pick up your doggy poo.