Plastic bags, it's time to leave?

In the past few months, the world's environmental advocates have pointed their way into plastic bags which were once ' clean ' now considered ' culprits ' contributing to the ' lip storm '. school '. The street-keeping campaign is no longer a foam bag that is going strong in many countries.

Last week, all 33 districts in London submitted to the British Parliament a bill banning stores, the supermarket 'gave away' plastic bags for buyers. If approved, this law would significantly reduce the number of foam bags that Londoners use each year, estimated at 1.6 billion, and many of them would be discarded after only one use.

London's move came after Modbury, a small town in Devon County (southwestern England), issued a ban on the use of plastic bags last summer. Many cities around the world also began to break up with foam bags. In 2002, Bangladesh's capital Dhaka banned the free distribution of plastic bags, and earlier this year, San Francisco became the first US city to force supermarkets and pharmacies to say no to plastic bags. Over the past 5 years, Ireland has imposed a 15% tax on supermarket bags, and in 2008 Australia will do the same.

(Photo: Getty Images, CNN) Plastic bags appeared about 150 years ago - invented by British chemist Alexander Parkes, and so far, no one has determined exactly when it decomposed. However, environmentalists, scientists and producers agree that the process of breaking down plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years. Since appearing in supermarkets in the US in the late 1970s, foam bags have been everywhere, an indispensable item for buyers in the world. It's light, firm and cheaper than paper bags. It is estimated that humanity uses about 500 billion to 1,000 billion plastic bags each year.

Plastic bags are made from petroleum-derived polyethylene and its degradation process is very slow. In fact, under the influence of light, the foam bag breaks down into many smaller, more toxic plastic molecules and eventually pollutes the soil and water. They can creep into the food of animals and humans. When not thrown into a landfill or burned out, plastic bags are usually taken to the sea by sewers, rivers and canals. According to the British Antarctic Survey Agency, plastic bags are seen floating in the North Arctic Sea while the US Marine Environmental Conservation Center recently said plastic bags account for more than 10% of the landfill. Sea of ​​this country. Plastic bags can be catastrophic in ending the lives of many creatures. According to the World Wildlife Fund, many individuals of about 200 marine species (such as whales, dolphins, seals, turtles .) died after swallowing plastic bags by mistake. foods; Many aquatic species also suffocate when entering into plastic bags.

In the context of environmental issues becoming a global focal point, supermarkets in many countries have also entered. Bags made from recycled plastic, biodegradable plastic bags from cornstarch or multi-use bags are present more and more at the cash register in the supermarket. Meanwhile, Symphony Environmental Technologies (UK) has developed the technology to produce more environmentally friendly plastic bags by adding d2w additives to polyethylene during production. On average, this bag will self-destruct after 2 years and small molecules that will dissolve will be harmless to microorganisms.

In the question of whether plastic bags should be banned, Symphony Plastics general manager Michael Laurier said that should not be done, and citing Ireland's taxation on plastic bags, sales of this product dropped 90% but sales. garbage bags increased by 400%. He also pointed out that plastic bags made from cornstarch on a long floor can be more harmful to the environment than regular plastic bags.'When cornstarch plastic bags are thrown into landfills, during decomposition, they release methane - a powerful greenhouse gas'. The British Association of Self-Destructive Plastics said that some biodegradable plastics (including those made from cornstarch) contain up to 50% of the oil-based artificial plastic component.

That is not to say humanity may have to ' pay ' more expensive to produce handbags from alternative materials such as cornstarch or palm oil. Recently, a report by the Greenpeace environmental organization alerted the widespread destruction of forests in Indonesia to plant palm trees to meet rising demand for palm oil . Land is an effective carbon stock. It is like burning a forest to release tons of carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) into the atmosphere. The problem is, in the future, what will we use to bring home goods? Peter Robinson - Director of Waste Monitoring Organization in London said: 'First and foremost is to limit the use of plastic bags and encourage the use of reusable bags'. .

DONG NGUYEN