ARE YOU READY?
PLASTIC BAG USE SKYROCKETS
March 20, 2008: Despite industry claims that plastic bag usage has been going down, a new draft report for the Federal Government has shown that plastic bag use has skyrocketed in 2007.
It’s understood that Australia’s plastic bag usage has increased by up to 700 million extra plastic bags in one year, with usage now standing at over 4 billion plastic bags a year.
"It blows out of the water once and for all the information being put out by industry on this issue," said Jon Dee, the organiser of The National Plastic Bag Campaign. "It shows that the voluntary approach for phasing out plastic bags has been a total failure."
“The Government should now move ahead with renewed determination to phase out plastic bags at the end of this year,” said Dee. “Whether it’s through a ban or a mandatory charge, Australia needs to get rid of free plastic check-out bags once and for all.”
To facilitate the phase-out, The National Plastic Bag Campaign has launched a website, http://www.AreYouReady.com.au that has tips and information to prepare homes and businesses for the Government's bag ban.
The new web site also refutes some plastic bag claims that have been made in recent weeks.
“Recent claims that wildlife are not affected by plastic bags are not true”, said Dee. “Similarly, no environment group in Australia is calling for a $1 per bag levy on plastic bags.”
Since the campaign to ban plastic bags started in 2002, Australians have used an estimated 25 billion plastic bags,” said Dee. “If we had taken action back then, we could have stopped many of those plastic bags from ending up in landfill or the environment,” he said.
