The Plastic Bag Ban Has Already Seen An 80% Drop In Use, So You’re Welcome, Sea Turtles
We did it everyone, the planet is saved! (Ok, not really).
We did it, everyone! We saved the planet by paying $1 for plastic bags in Australian supermarkets. The oceans are thriving once more and a dolphin just gave me high five! Climate change is fixed and everything is clean again!
Just kidding, the world is still on fire and we continue to catapult towards global temperature rises that will irreversibly desolate entire communities. Sorry about it!
In slightly good news though, the first stats have come out after three months of the so-called plastic bag ban introduced by the two big supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths and it’s deadset working a treat.
The National Retail Association has dropped the facts on us this morning, with the news that the controversial (if you’re a lazy idiot, that is) ban on single-use plastic bags has already taken 1.5 billion bags out of circulation. That translates to an 80% drop in consumption of plastic bags nationwide.
NRA spokesperson David Stout reckons it could even be higher than that saying in a statement “some retailers are reporting reduction rates as high as 90 per cent”.
Stout has used the great news to further put the pressure on NSW, which is the only state left that doesn’t have legislation on plastic bag use. “We’re still seeing a lot of small to medium bags being used, especially in the food category, and whilst I get some comfort that the majors have done this voluntarily I think there still needs to be a ban in place,” he said.
The surprisingly large success of the move over just a short amount of time goes to prove how comparatively simple gestures such as bans on single-use plastics can hugely alter our impacts on local environments.
It’s a small move towards a cleaner, greener Australia and with the way we’ve been going lately in regards to battling climate change and its various nefarious outcomes, we must gather these rare good news stories and hold them tight. Sucked in naysayers, this one’s bloody well working.
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Via The New Daily