Essayist Wendell Berry said it plainly: “Our economy is such that we cannot afford to take care of things: labor is expensive, time is expensive, money is expensive, but materials – the stuff of creation – are so cheap that we cannot afford to take care of them.”
Such is the case of plastic bags. “Plastic bags could be the most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth,” wrote Brian Halweil of the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute.
“Their light weight, low cost and water resistance make them so convenient for carrying groceries, clothing or any other routine purchase that it’s hard to imagine life without them.”
Economies worldwide are following suit. “Since they were introduced in the 1970s, plastic bags have infiltrated our lives,” wrote Caroline Williams in an article which appeared in New Scientist.
“Globally, we carry home between 500 billion and a trillion every year — about 150 bags for every person on earth, or, to put it another way, a million every minute and rising.”
Today, a growing number of environmentalists has considered plastic bag as public enemy no. 1.
“Plastic bags are a waste of resources in that we use them once and throw them away,” Claire Wilton, senior waste campaigner for the London-based Friends of the Earth.
Plastic bags start as crude oil, natural gas or other petrochemical derivatives that are transformed in plastic factories into chains of hydrogen and carbon molecules known as polymers or polymer resin.
High-density polyethylene resin is the industry standard for plastic bags. “The polyethylene is superheated and the molten resin is extruded as a tube, sort of like the process of making pasta,” said Halweil.
“After the desired shape is achieved, the resin is cooled, hardens and can be flattened, sealed, punched or printed on.”
Although the lay person tends to think of plastic as a single material having numerous applications, more than 46 different polymers are actually in common use.
A squeezable ketchup bottle, for example, is made of six layers of plastics, each engineered to do a different job, such as to give the bottle shape, strength, flexibility and impermeability.
The typical plastic bag that weighs just a few grams and is a few millimeters thick might seem thoroughly innocuous were it not for the sheer volume of global production: 500 billion to one trillion a year.
Producing plastic bags uses about 20%-40% less energy and water than paper sack production does, and generates less air pollution and solid waste, according to life cycle assessments by both industry and non-industry groups.
Officials from the plastics industry also note that plastic bags take up less space in a landfill and that neither product decomposes under the prevailing conditions in most landfills.
That’s one side of the coin. The other side: Given the proper conditions, however, the paper sack would decompose rapidly, while the plastic bag would not. In reality, many plastic bags do not find their way to landfills.
A survey conducted by the EcoWaste Coalition and Greenpeace Philippines in 2006 discovered plastic bags and other synthetic packaging materials to comprise 76 percent of garbage retrieved from Manila Bay .
In Laguna de Bay, plastic bags make up 25% of the solid waste that is polluting the lake.
“Plastic bags end up as litter as it makes its way to landfills, drainages and bodies of water, taking decades to decompose and damaging marine life when dumped into the sea,” said Senator Loren Legarda in a statement.
The World Wildlife Fund for Nature claimed that nearly 200 different marine species die due to ingestion and choking from plastic bags. Some marine turtles (pawikan) die after eating plastic bags, which they mistake for jellyfish, squid, or some other food.
Discussing plastics in general term, a report which appeared in Environmental Action noted, “Many of the chemicals used in the production and processing of plastic are highly toxic, resulting in hazardous wastes, toxic air emissions and discharges of toxic effluents into waterways.”
The report further stated: “People don’t think plastic products are toxic because by the time they get to supermarket shelves, they’re not. But ingredients in plastic production have dangerous properties for those who work with them or live near plastic factories.”
And now the good news: Some manufacturers have recently introduced biodegradable or compostable plastic bags made from starches, polymers or polylactic acid, and no polyethylene.
So far, these account for less than 1% of the market and are prohibitively expensive, according to the Biodegradable Products Institute, an association that promotes the use of biodegradable polymeric materials.
Nonetheless, the organizers of the 2000 Olympics Games in Sydney , Australia , collected 76% of the food waste generated at the sports venues and the athletes’ village by using biodegradable food utensils and plastic bags that composted as easily as the food and that eliminated the need to separate the garbage.
The composts were used to nourish city gardens the following spring.
Elsewhere, governments and individuals are suggesting a more permanent solution that does not depend on new technology.
In South Africa , the government took action in 2002 by requiring industry to make bags more durable and more expensive, to discourage their disposal – prompting a 90% reduction in use.
In the Philippines , Senator Legarda, chair of the Senate committee on climate change, filed Senate Bill No. 2759, which proposes to groceries, supermarkets, public markets, restaurants, fast-food chains, and department and retail stores to refrain from using plastic bags.
Another senator, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., filed Senate Bill No. 2749, which seeks to regulate the use of plastic bags to minimize land-based sources of pollution and protect the quality of water.
But plastic bags should not be the only one to be singled out. There are also plastic containers, which “poised to overtake glass bottles and jars (as container of food and beverages) by 2020,” reported The Future of European Food and Drink Packaging to 2015
The report – which covers 12 European countries in Western and Eastern European, Scandinavia as well as Russia and Turkey – predicts that plastic bottles, particularly PET containers, already added almost 12 billion units to annual volumes between 2005 and 2010 and will add 17 billion units by 2015.
PET is an acronym for polyethylene terephthalate, which is the plastic used to produce rigid containers such as carbonated soda bottles, mineral water, milk, fruit juices, sports and energy drinks, and ready-to-drink teas.
Most of the world PET production, over 60 percent, is used for synthetic fibers; PET bottles account for only 30 percent.
The popularity of PET bottles is traced by the report to clarity, unbreakability, design flexibility, light weight, recyclability, economical production and improved ultraviolet light protection that extends the shelf life of PET packages.
“In recent years, PET bottles have shown the strongest growth in the drinks sector by replacing glass bottles, liquid cartons and metal cans in many applications,” said the report which was commissioned by the industry consultant Pira International.
While PET containers can be recycled, most people don’t do so. About 85 percent of PET containers are never recycled, according to the Container Recycling Institute. Just like plastic bags, PET containers mostly end up in landfills.
Is this happening in the Philippines , too?
