UN calls for worldwide ban on single-use plastic bags

Speaking following the launch of a UN report on marine litter, Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Program, said that there was “zero justification” for manufacturing plastic bags anywhere.

He told reporters in the US: “Single-use plastic bags which choke marine life should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere. There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them any more, anywhere.”

Steiner said that plastic was a particular problem as, once in the sea, it broke down into ever-smaller particles that could be ingested by tiny organisms.

But he said that aside from plastic carrier bags, campaigns should be run to encourage recycling and reuse.

He said; “Other waste can be cut by boosting public awareness, and proposing an array of economic incentives and smart market mechanisms that tip the balance in favour of recycling, reducing or reuse rather than dumping into the sea.”

Steiner’s comments are bound to frustrate advocates of single-use carrier bags, who argue that they are light, fit for purpose and have environmental benefits over alternatives.

Countries that have banned or imposed charges on single-use carrier bags include China and Ireland. In the UK, supermarkets are also under pressure to reduce the bags’ use.

But the plastic-bag industry says that its bags aren’t the problem – it’s the people who throw them out.
“Recycling is what we see as the best approach for the US,” Keith Christman of the American Chemistry Council told McClatchy. “Plastic is just too valuable to waste.”

The EPA actually finds that plastic bags are preferable to paper ones in landfills, because paper degrades too quickly and takes up more room.

Nonetheless, countries and cities around the world are starting to ban or tax single-use plastic bags. Ireland makes customers pay extra for each one; San Francisco has banned them outright, and Los Angeles will do so next year.

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