Waleed Aly Has Launched An Impassioned Campaign For Australia To Ban Plastic Bags

In his first ‘Something We Should Talk About’ segment of 2017, Waleed Aly has called on Australians to back a ban on plastic shopping bags, describing them as “one of the biggest sources of pollution on the planet”.

In an impassioned editorial written by the show’s co-host and The Project producer Tom Whitty, Aly spoke about our continued use of environmentally harmful plastic bags. The segment featured many, many sad turtles.

“It’s estimated Australians use between 4 and 6 billion plastic bags annually,” Aly said. “We use more than 10 million plastic bags every day. And just since I’ve been speaking, Australians have dumped 7,150 plastic bags into landfill.”

The good news, Aly said, was that South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT already have bans on plastic bags in place, while Queensland is set to enact its own ban in July next year. Not only that, but when asked by The Project, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, and WA Premier Mark McGowan all said that they supported a ban as well.

“These guys want to ban plastic bags,” said Aly. “They’re even ready to ban plastic bags. They’re just waiting for you to give them a push. But unless we give them a push, nothing will change.”

Aly then directed viewers to a change.org petition, launched in partnership with Clean Up Australia, calling on Berejiklian, Andrews and McGowan to get their acts together.

“Tweet the premiers to let them know that you support a ban,” Aly implored. “Email them, call them, hit them up on their Facebook pages. Show them that there is plenty of political goodwill in having the courage to ban the bag.”

Since the segment aired last night, the clip has been viewed more than 420,000 times, the hashtag #banthebag has trended across Australia, and the change.org petition is nearing 30,000 signatures.

Heed the call, Australia.