The city of Mysore in India is another city embracing the concept of eco-friendly by fixing a minimum price for plastic bags with 40 micron thickness. Retailers are also banned from giving consumers free plastic carrier bags, in a bid to rid the city of plastic waste whilst encouraging the citizens to become more eco-friendly.
Due to Gordon Brown's cow tailing to supermarkets and not introducing a tax on carrier bags, UK citizens are now far from being eco-friendly compared to their Irish counterparts, let alone the rest of the world. In fact the number of bags used by each person in the UK has started to rise again to 7.7 per month, whereas Irelands is just 2!
Until the government force the retailers to charge for carrier bags, the British public will continue to take bags. Unfortunately people think they are being eco-friendly by re-using the bags in their household bins or popping them in the recycling bins at the supermarkets. But it does not matter how many times the bags are reused they will still be here in over a 1000 years. The only eco-friendly way to use a plastic bag is not to use them. If the UK government haven't even got the bottle to force retailers to charge for carrier bags, will they ever ban them?
The UK is falling behind the rest of the world. Rwanda and Eritrea banned plastic bags years ago, which started a ripple effect across Africa with other countries following their lead and banning all bags. China which used 3 billion bags a DAY yes you did read that right, in fact the country used 37 million barrels of oil a year just to make bags that they consume. Thankfully they have now stopped shops from giving away the bags encouraging the population to become more eco-friendly.
I will now digress into my biggest pet hate, yes bigger than seeing all verges covered in discarded bags from multi-national companies who show no corporate responsibility and utter contempt for the beautiful country to which we are temporary guardians. Dog owners! Not all dog owners of course, but the ones who pick up their pets mess in a plastic bag and then discard the bag on the floor or even worse fling the bag into trees. I struggle with the reasoning of having the responsibility of cleaning up after your dog (even if it is in a plastic bag preserving the mess for a millennium) to then throw the bag and mess into the nearest tree.
We need a call to action that the only plastic bags that are produced are degradable and for the government to follow the lead of other countries and implement a blanket ban on giving out bags. This is the only way to encourage an eco-friendly UK.
I have found a company that sells 100% degradable bags they also supply over 950 eco-friendly products, a one stop shop for all things eco. You can find them at http://www.ecolivingproducts.co.uk.
Rebecca http://www.ecolivingproducts.blogspot.com
Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert
