The Plastic Bag Action Group is looking at options to reduce or eliminate plastic bags from the waste stream in Benalla. Our goal – to have Benalla a ‘single use plastic bag free’ & ‘water bottle free’ town. We have met on several occasions with employees of Benalla Rural City and a representative from Benalla Business Network in an initiative to make Benalla a “Plastic Bag Free” town. Progress has been very slow – it would be great to have new members in our passionate, committed action group with time on their side to work towards our goal.
The environmental impacts of plastic bag use include:
Danger to animal life, especially when they find their way into the sea.
Pacific Trash Vortex. The amount of floating plastics in the world’s oceans is increasing dramatically.
Litter problem. Plastic bags are a highly visible, ugly component of litter.
Loss of resources. Plastic bags are typically used for a short period of time but take hundreds of years to break down in landfill. While plastic bags can be recycled, only a tiny proportion of plastic bags are collected and reprocessed.
Greenhouse gases. Based on using ten lightweight plastic bags per week over a 2-year period, the greenhouse gas impact has more than three times the greenhouse gas impact of a reusable ‘green bag’.
A lightweight plastic bag consumes about 4.5 times more energy in its manufacture than reusable ‘green bags’.
To get the full greenhouse gas benefit from a reusable ‘green bag’, it must be reused over 100 times.
Starch-based biodegradable (or ‘compostable’) bags consume less than one-third of the energy to produce as plastic alternatives, but emit marginally more carbon dioxide (CO2 – a greenhouse gas) as they decompose. However, unlike single use plastic bags, biodegradable bags will completely breakdown.
Plastic Free campaign resources – checkout http://plasticbagfreevictoria.org and: ‘Plastic Free July’ – some great ideas for action! The ‘Plastic Free July’ campaign mounts the challenge to attempt to refuse single use plastic during the month of July. The ‘Plastic Free July’ website is a rich resource containing strategies which could be used throughout the year. Check out the Toolbox and the Plastic Free July calendar of events for this and previous years for ideas about activities.