Recycling Plastic: What a Waste, Our Toxic Burden from Plastics by Lisa Kaas Boyle, Co-Founder Plastic Pollution Coalition, Huffington Post, September 16, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-kaas-boyle/recycling-plastic-what-a_b_287673.html
Tesco misleads on plastic bag progress, The Times, August 4, 2009
Britain’s biggest supermarket chain has published misleading figures giving the impression that it had met an industry target to halve the use of plastic bags.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6737868.ece
United Nations Environment Programme Head Calls for World-Wide Ban on Pointless Thin Film Plastic Bags, June 2009
‘Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "Marine litter is symptomatic of a wider malaise: namely the wasteful use and persistent poor management of natural resources. The plastic bags, bottles and other debris piling up in the oceans and seas could be dramatically reduced by improved waste reduction, waste management and recycling initiatives. "Some of the litter, like thin film single use plastic bags which choke marine life, should be banned or phased-out rapidly everywhere-there is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere.
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=589&ArticleID=6214&l=en
July 2009 - 346 million down, only 372 million to go! May 2009
Leading supermarkets have narrowly missed a Government target to reduce carrier bag use by 50%. Last year, seven supermarket chains signed up to a voluntary scheme aimed at reducing the number of bags given out by 50%. In May 2006, 718 million bags were being given out, and figures released on July 17 show that by May 2009 the number had almost halved to 372 million, a reduction of 48%, but missing the target by 2%.
Towards a Plastic-Bag-Free Kingston comment: "This is both good news and bad news. It's good that there are fewer plastic bags going into the system, but it still leaves an enormous 372 million - and that's just from these 7 supermarket chains! And it may mean that the promised Government ban or levy on plastic bags will be quietly dropped?
Rainforest Action Network asks fashion stores to source the paper they use in their carrier bags carefully. See http://cms.ran.org/media_center/news_article/?uid=4824 - and take your good cloth bag when you go clothes shopping too.
"Drowning in plastic: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is twice the size of France", (Daily Telegraph, 24/4/09)
"There are now 46,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometre of the world's oceans, killing a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals each year..." See: Sea of Plastic, the QUEST Community Science Blog explores local science, nature, and environment issues & experiences in Northern California. August 2008, http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2008/08/22/reporters-notes-sea-of-plastic/
Towards a Plastic-Bag-Free Kingston comment: "Estimates about the size of the plastic garbage patch vary, and this is about more than just plastic bags - but plastic bags are part of this horrific oceanic pollution and we can all do our bit not to add to it."
The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii
A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing ... (Independent, Tuesday, 5 February 2008)
www.independent.co.uk/.../the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html