Like many other hazards, single-use plastic bags have reached the proportions of a widely scorned and discouraged vice. Also known as disposable plastics, they are omnipresent – from grocery stores, and retail businesses to our homes. Ultimately we find them buried in landfills and in the sand on the beaches, flying on the streets, hanging from tree branches, and blowing around bushes.
This man-made catastrophe poses a serious environmental danger to human and animal health. This needs to be treated like a drug habit and kicked as a lifestyle pledge!
In 2008, Zero Waste Europe launched a global movement against single-use plastic bags. It gained significant momentum in the years that followed. Consequently, July 3 every year was declared as International Plastic Bag Free Day to foster shared awareness and actions to get rid of the notorious environmental menace from our planet.
Reports show that some 160,000 bags are used every second. That’s five trillion bags a year. And fewer than three per cent are recycled. Sadly, a plastic bag takes 1,000 years to disintegrate in a landfill!
“Globally, people consume the equivalent of a credit card of plastic every week, and it’s expected that there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050,” a report by US Centre for Biological Diversity points out.
These toxic chemicals are now being found in our bloodstream and the latest research has found they cause cancer, infertility, birth defects, impaired immunity, and many other ailments.
They’re dangerous to wildlife as well. They’re dangerous to fish, birds, and other animals. If animals eat plastic carrier bags they can die. And when they die and their bodies decompose, the plastic bag is released into the environment again, ready to kill something else.
Unfortunately, only a small percentage of these bags are recycled each year, and most float about the landscape and create a tremendous expense in clean-up costs. Several countries, regions and cities have enacted legislation to ban or severely reduce the use of disposable plastic shopping bags.
Many municipalities in the Gulf region are targeting shopping malls and grocery stores to reduce dependence on single-use plastic bags.
The Sultanate of Oman is one of the many countries in the region that is working towards reducing its dependency on plastic bags which are responsible for thousands of marine animals getting killed each year by ingesting plastic or getting tangled in it.
The government has banned the use and distribution of single-use plastic bags for shopping and other activities since January 2021.
It’s not too late yet. There are still many changes in your lifestyle that you can incorporate to reduce your plastic footprint in the environment. The hazards of single-use plastic bags can be mitigated by raising environmental awareness among communities.
Each of us can contribute to the cause by adopting simple yet impactful habits. In this context, environmentalists advise carrying a reusable bag when shopping, refusing plastic bags when unnecessary, and embracing reusable alternatives for storage and transportation are practical steps that can make a significant difference.
By making sensible choices and urging friends, family and our local communities, we can collectively work towards a cleaner and healthier environment. We need to modify our everyday habits by not using plastic bags. When there is a good alternative and only use plastic when it is strictly necessary. Plastic bags can be reused or used for different purposes.
It is necessary to think about how they can be reused before disposing of them. A world without the use of so much plastic is definitely possible!
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