Plastic Bags - What Are The Alternatives?

An average European uses almost 200 throwaway plastic bags a year. Almost a million tons of plastic bags are produced in the European Union, but only 6 % of them are recycled. Europe’s lawmakers are looking for alternatives to using plastic and reducing the waste and litter that comes with them.

Many countries around the world have been fighting against the use of plastic bags. In some countries, for example China or South Africa, very thin plastic bags are banned. In Bangladesh they clog up the sewers. Last year Italy banned plastic bags that are not made out of organic substances. Some countries have prohibited the use of plastic bags altogether. In the United States, however, there is no real regulation and some supermarkets offer them while others don’t.

In Ireland the government introduced a 15 cent surcharge on plastic bags in 2002. Within a year 90% shoppers of all shoppers started reusing their bags. Millions of Euros earned by the tax have been used on looking for new ways of recycling. In Wales, shop assistants are threatened with a fine if they hand out plastic bags free of charge.

In contrast , experts argue that if shoppers use alternative, stronger bags they must use them very often in order to compensate for more carbon used in production and transport. A cotton bag, for example, must be used over a hundred times to really be environmentally friendly.

Food researchers see another danger. They claim that reusing bags could be a problem because harmful bacteria may be left behind in grocery bags .