Plastic Carrier Bags - The Unsung Hero?

 An unpublished Government report shows us that the plastic carrier bag may be an environmental hero rather than an Eco villan.

The report in question "Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags" reveals that the Eco warriors bag of choice the cotton bag may be a wolf in sheep's clothing, with HDPE carrier bags which have a baseline global warming potential of 1.57kg, reducing to just 1.4kg after one re use, the report shows that you would have to use your cotton bag 131 times for it to emit a similar level of CO2 equivalent to HDPE plastic carriers bags and after just reusing your carrier bag once this increases to 171.

With the current situation in Wales that has seen the Welsh Assembly pass a compulsory charge of 5p per carrier bag onto its retailers, this report could not have come at a better time, it highlights the fact that all packaging material has an environmental impact but the key is to either re use your plastic carrier bags in what ever way possible, for example as a bin liner or if you are sticking with your cotton bag you need to make sure you use it over and over again.

5p Carrier Bag Charge Becomes Law in Wales

From the 1st October 2011 Welsh shoppers will be the first in the UK to face a mandatory charge for single use carrier bags after the Welsh Assembly Government approved the plans to make retailers legally obliged to charge for every single use carrier bag.

The original charge for the single use carrier bags was going to be 7p but after the BRC (British Retail Consortium) pointed out that this would make the carrier bags more expensive than some of the bags for life offered by retailers the decision was made to reduce the cost to 5p.

The aim of this charge is to encourage the use of re usable bags for life, but a consequence of this charge could be a huge increase in the use of the heavier bags for life as the customers may start to treat them as single use carrier bags rather than re using them. If this is the case the impact on the environment could be significant with each bag for life containing up to 8 times as much material than single use carrier bags.

Rather than a one size fits all solution the BRC is in favour of retailers being given the power to judge what will work best for their customers, this approach has seen the Welsh retailers reduce carrier bag use by up to 50% since 2006.

For more information visit us on YouTube where we have a video on this subject.

What are your views on the use of carrier bags, what is the best way forward to reduce the impact on the environment. Please comment.