AUSTRALIA NEXT TO AXE THE PLASTIC BAG

NO LOVE FOR PLASTIC BAGS DOWN UNDER, IS THE PLASTIC SHOPPING BAG AN ENDANGERED SPECIES?

Australia wants to become the next country to rid itself of pesky plastic shopping bags, hoping to phase out plastic bags completely by the end of this year. The nation produces four billion plastic bags annually, with most of them ending up in landfill.

While there is resistance to the plan from Australian industry and retail groups, the government is sticking to its guns – and keeping its options open. Around the globe, countries and municipalities are finding ingenious ways to rid themselves of this plague of plastic, from bag taxes to outright bans. Whatever the government of Australia decides, one thing is certain: plastic shopping bags are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

¡Hasta la Victoria Siempre! takes a look at the anti-plastic bag movement around the world:

CANADA: In April, 2007, Leaf Rapids, Manitoba became the first city in Canada to ban plastic shopping bags. Tofino, British Columbia did the same in May. Huntingdon, Quebec went bag free last month. The province of Quebec is currently considering a 20 cent bag tax.

CHINA: The Chinese government announced last month that plastic shopping bags will be banned nationwide effective June 1. Businesses who defy the ban will face hefty fines and/or the seizure of property. Read our full article here.

INDIA: A number of Indian states have outlawed plastic bags. A cow found dead in the streets of New Delhi recently had some 35,000 plastic bags in its digestive system. Cows are viewed as sacred animals by most Hindus. In Mumbai, storm drains clogged with discarded shopping bags were partially to blame for disastrous floods in 2005 that killed more than 400 people. Plastic bags are now completely illegal in the city of 18 million.

IRELAND: In 2002, Ireland passed a 33 cent tax on plastic bags. Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. The tax is collected by the government, which uses the money to finance environmental enforcement and cleanup programs. The country is now considering a similar tax for debit machine receipts and chewing gum.

U.S.A.: In March 2007, San Francisco became the first city in North America to ban the bags.

Bangladesh, Taiwan, South Africa, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Nepal and Zanzibar have all banned the bag. In each of these countries, the main concern was unsightly — and ubiquitous — litter. South Africans have long referred to the thin white plastic bags as "national flowers."

While these countries have had success in cleaning up their plastic bags, efforts have failed in many places because of heated opposition from manufacturers and merchants, who have said a tax would be bad for business. In London, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, proposed taxes have failed to gain political approval. Some countries, like Italy, have settled for voluntary participation.

In January almost 42 billion plastic bags were used worldwide; the figure increases by more than half a million bags every minute. Over 500 billion bags are used annually worldwide. A vast majority are not reused, ending up as waste in landfills or as litter. Because plastic bags are light and compressible, they constitute only 2 percent of landfill, but since most are not biodegradable, they will remain there for hundreds of years. Read Karen Pearce’s excellent article on the life and death of a plastic bag here.

Of course nobody needs to wait for their government to ban plastic bags before they stop using them. Alternatives are readily available, ranging from re-usable bags to biodegradable bags made from tapioca starch. Making the switch from plastic bags is a simple step to help clean up your neighborhood, to help reduce energy from the producing and recycling of bags, and to help reduce the amount of plastic in the environment.

Shoutout to Australia for getting on the global bandwagon, and to every country, province, state, and municipality who has taken measures to rid the earth of the pesky plastic bag.

Sources, resources, and discourses:

1. The Australian – article
2. The Australian - article
3. CBC – article
4. Clean Up Australia – website
5. The Montreal Gazette – article
6. The Montreal Gazette - article
7. The Toronto Star – article
8. The New York Times – article
9. Westcoaster.ca - article
10. ABC – feature article
11. inhabitat - photo

JAPANESE GARBAGE POWER

BURNING TRASH FOR ELECTRICITY

Plasma turns garbage into gas that powers a turbine at a Japanese facility

This is from Discover Magazine:

What could be better than a power station that eats up dirty landfill and churns out clean electricity? One facility in Utashinai, Japan, has been doing just that since 2003, using plasma to process up to 220 tons of municipal solid waste a day. Now a bigger and better $425 million plant is scheduled for completion by 2009 in Saint Lucie County, Florida. The operator, Atlanta-based Geoplasma, expects it to generate 160 megawatts of electricity—enough to power 36,000 homes—from a daily diet of trash.

At the plant, garbage will be superheated to more than 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit—about the temperature of the sun’s surface—by a NASA-developed plasma torch. Organic components will be gasifed by the heat; the inorganic remainder will be melted and removed. Syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, will be extracted from the gas output and used to drive turbines and generate electricity. Gases from the plant will be processed to remove dangerous compounds like dioxins, and the company pledges that emissions will be well under state and federal environmental limits. Heavy metals from the inorganic dross will be collected and sold as scrap.

The Florida facility will be built right next to a large landfill, which the company will dig into at a daily rate of 1,000 tons—along with 2,000 tons of brand-new trash to be trucked in. Geoplasma is negotiating contracts to sell three-quarters of the electricity generated by the plant to a utility company.

Let’s review: a power station that reduces garbage and creates enough “clean” electricity to power 36,000 homes… why aren’t there one of these facilities next to every landfill?

Shoutout to Geoplasma for helping to pioneer the alchemy of turning garbage into gold.

Click on the links for more information:

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/may/the-ultimate-garbage-disposal

http://bioconversion.blogspot.com/2006/10/geoplasma-answers-trash-vaporization_14.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071207001203.htm

CHINA BANS PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS

Chinese authorities announced that they're outlawing plastic shopping bags because of pollution and energy concerns. This is from the CBC website:

China's State Council said the ban will start June 1. Firms that continue to sell, make and distribute bags thicker than 0.025 mm thick will be given fines and authorities may seize goods and profits, the State Council said.

"Our country consumes huge amounts of plastic bags every year. While providing convenience to consumers, they have also caused serious pollution, and waste of energy and resources, because of excessive use and inadequate recycling," the government said in a statement, according to Reuters.

"We should encourage people to return to carrying cloth bags, using baskets for their vegetables."

So will it make a difference? According to Worldwatch Institute, consumers worldwide toss about 500 billion plastic bags annually. Furthermore, it takes these bags over 1000 years to dissolve.

It's hard to visualize 500 billion plastic bags, so instead let me break it down for you: here in the Wintergreen house (2 human occupants and 2 feline occupants), we recycle our plastic bags. Each month we use enough plastic bags to fill one large garbage bag. Our household, therefore, produces approximately 12 garbage bags full of plastic bags per year. It's easy to visualize 12 garbage bags full - it's enough to fill my kitchen with plastic bags.

How much energy would it take to recycle 500 billion plastic bags per year? That's a lot of trips to the recycling depot. It occurs to me that recycling these bags does not even begin to solve the problem. The solution, then, is obvious: stop using plastic bags.

This idea seems to be catching on. In March 2007, San Francisco became the first North American city to ban non-recyclable plastic bags. In April 2007, Leaf Rapids, Manitoba, became the first Canadian municipality to ban plastic bags. And here in the Wintergreen house, we have purchased two sturdy reusable bags for our shopping.

A big shoutout to the great nation of China, the beautiful city of San Francisco, and the forward-thinking community of Leaf Rapids for not being afraid to let go of the convenience of these pesky bags.

Here are a few links:

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/01/08/china-bags.html

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/04/02/manitoba-bags.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2007/03/28/sanfrancisco-plastic.html