Should Plastic Bags Be Banned?

Plastic bags for use by consumers in supermarkets and other stores should be made illegal. In the UK alone, over 13 billion plastic bags are handed to consumers each year, representing a substantial proportion of all floating marine litter[[http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/13/plasticbags.pollution]]. More than this, plastic bags are responsible for the deaths of huge numbers of marine species, who mistake the bags for food. Consumers must accept that it is hugely wasteful, massively unethical, and potentially deadly to continue using plastic bags. Supermarkets must be told by the government that continued supply of plastic bags will result in large fines, whilst those supermarkets who remove all their bags can be rewarded.

Charging consumers for using plastic bags should not result in profit for the supermarkets. Instead, any supermarkets who refuse to totally ban plastic bags, and charge their customers for using the bags (eg. 10p for bag), should be made to pay a fine to local governments. This revenue should then be used to repeal some of the damage supermarkets reap on the local economy, environment, and society.

Plastic bag production uses almost 10 percent of the world’s annual oil supply. Only 3.5 percent of this number are recycled. This means that much of the planet’s precious natural resources are being used to produce plastic bags that many of us maintain are unneccessary. The chemicals and compounds that go into making plastic bags could also be utilised in a far more effective manner. These two factors show that plastic bag production is a waste of resources, which could be being used in a far more effective way. Also there is alot of animals dieing about like 100,000 animals dieing each year by plastic bags.

An estimated 17 billion plastic bags are given to British consumers. We do not need this many plastic bags in the world. The pollution caused by their creation alone is enough to warrant a ban on their manufacture and their use. In addition, they do not degrade well in our rubbish dumps, so they will remain on this planet forever more. We cannot have this accumulation of plastic bags and the only way forward is to ban their distribution and use.

Not only do plastic bags fill up our landfill sites where they will remain forever more, but people throw them into the streets. They accept plastic bags when they do not need to and once out of the shops take their items and litter the streets with the unwanted plastic bags. Animals can caught in them, motor accidents are caused, and many end up in trees. As a society, this shows that we do not need plastic bags if we are willing to just throw them away. Plastic bags should be banned and replaced with bags that we would not so readily disregard.

Plastic bags can and have killed/(have been used to kill) many an animal (including human beings) and they only have one singular use(carry things) for which, they can easily be substituted (with other bags) for.[[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ei=36KHSp3INo3W6gPN0_HOAw&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=Plastic+bags+suffocate+asphyxiate+kill&spell=1]]

A baby was deliberately suffocated with plastic bags in this particular case:[[transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0709/20/ng.01.html]]

Plastic bags often end up floating in the seas- the home to many mammals, fish and invertebrates. One species that is at great risk from plastic bags is the already endangered Leatherback turtle (amongst others including the Green turtle, see the article below).

Turtles often mistake floating plastic bags for jellyfish- their only food source. The tragedy is that once they eat the plastic bags, they can get caught up and wrapped round the gut or in the throat, causing suffocation and starvation.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-519770/Banish-The-Bags-The-Mail-launches-campaign-clean-country—planet.html

By banning plastic bags, not only will we reudce all the environmental issues such as animals, litter and landfill, we will also spread awareness globally and even potentially nationally. For example, say Australia bans plastic bags, in a couple of years time, all these issues would be on their way to being resolved and America’s government might think “Wow, we didn’t realise this was such a big issue! And look, 5 years ago Australias landfill was overflowing with plastic bags that do not break down and now the small perentage of cloth bags that do go in landfill (not many go in because cloth bags are so reusable) are gone very quickly because they break down into what is not unhealthy for the environment! Maybe we should ban plastic bags too so we can recieve such a great effect!” And the England may copy, the France and Japan and China and Brazil etc etc. Do you see what I mean. People realise it is a big enough issue to make a law and see this great effect and actually CARE!

Yes, plastics use must be banned .Throwing poly bags plastics could make the soil unfertile (soil pollution). this is very bad. we need fertile soil caue it helps plants to grow, which is our food. Animals also need soil cause it make plants to grow and animals eat plants.we can say they indirectly depend on soil. burning plstics cause very polluted gases which could make our lungs weak on breathing them, also can cause many lungs diseases like asthama. daily more than 5 crores poly bags are thrown.
so, we can do a little work to avoid plastic like we can use paper bags instead of poly bags.
try a lot to avoid plastic.

Paper can be reused. If all you do is put cans in it, its not dirty. They can be reused. I have many bags that i reuse. They are very useful. All you do is grab some before leaving and you’re set.

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Within the united states the are more trees grown than cut down every year. Americans plant roughly 1.5 billion trees. Our Paper companies are committed to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative which is an organization that understands the need to use trees as resources and does its best to keep trees alive in the world so that they can always exist. Remember, without trees, paper companies would be without a job. why would they want that? They are not mindless idiots.

Those of you say that it dosen’t harm the enviroment you are totally WRONG!. Because turtles eats plastic and die by mistaking them by jelly fish. Also maybe some animals is close to extincit because of plastic. And its also very harm for earth earth wil really get dirty and we might have to leave the planet if this gos on so people who says no dont ban it

taxes may well reduce the number of plastic bags that are handed out and used by consumers however a reduction even by 90% would still leave more than a billion bags a year used in Britain, this still seems like an aweful lot plastic bags added to those that are already in the oceans and spread across the land. Some rich ones didn’t even care of the tax,so ban it is better than adding tax. If we ban it,they can’t buy any plastic bags n they will buy recycle bags.

Most people already have bags, whether they be ‘a bag for life’, old style shopping trolly bags, rucksacks etc. There would be little need for consumers to buy new bags any more regularly than they do now and certainly no need to buy new bags to replace the plastic bags now used. These bags are mostly used because they are free and more convenient than consumers carrying their own bags to the shops as well as back again.

Why should we not be free to make nuclear bombs? Why should we not be free to kill another human being if they annoy us? Why? Because some things in life are more important than ‘choice’. Why? Because we live in a society where our actions have implications upon everyone else. It would not be fair for some to strive to keep the environment clean whilst those with money show a blatant disregard just because they can afford to.

It is a lamentable and rather devastating reflection on the current state of human apathy that somebody should argue that helping to reduce the negative impact of human beings on the environment is an “unwarranted inconvenience”. Indeed, it is an inconvenience that we should have to replace fossil feuls, or drive hybrid cars, or improve home insulation. If things were easy or convenient, you can bet that consumers have already adopted that process. Don’t worry though, if we keep going the way we are none of us will be around to apologise for our collective naivity and arrogance.

If you have/had a cloth bag or a relatively sturdy durable plastic bag already, with longevity, so that can be used be and reused over and over(without getting torn or damaged or inefficiently disposed like a standard plastic bag) .Then you will not have to buy ‘carrier bags’ every time you went to the market.

If plastic bags are banned, people will buy nice big bags that are much more useful. Since this would only be a one-time purchase the costs in the long-run will be significantly lower for shoppers and supermarkets alike(in monetary as well environmental terms.)

I sometimes forget that the protection of plastic bag manufacturers is more important than attempting to clean the planet we live on. I forget that, so long as the workers in the plastic bag industry are OK, we will not suffer any environmental damage. Economic conditions should not impact upon the manner in which we address a problem that is contributing to the destruction of our planet. To believe that the livelihoods of a few workers is more important than preventing environmental damage is a ludacrous sentiment that deserves significant criticism.

You might as well argue that a very small percentage of the human population has A.I.D.S or S.A.R.S or Cancer. Should we stop fighting disease, since most people at any particular point in time, are healthy? If we let the sale and purchase and inefficient disposal of plastic bags(including large black garbage bags) continue then more will be produced to be sold and inefficiently disposed in the future.If we stop production and sales, here and now, then one more environmental hazard(existing and in the making) will be checked off the list.

As we all know, demand causes sales and production. Stop buying and/or using plastic bags and production & sales will eventually cease.

To argue that plastic bags once BANNED will be replaced by more plastic bags. Is almost as redundant and (oxymoron-ic) as my posting the same rebuttal against this AND the next NO point.

You might as well argue that a very small percentage of the human population has A.I.D.S or S.A.R.S or Cancer. Should we stop fighting disease, since most people at any particular point in time, are healthy? If we let the sale and purchase and inefficient disposal of plastic bags(including large black garbage bags) continue then more will be produced to be sold and inefficiently disposed in the future.If we stop production and sales, here and now, then one more environmental hazard(existing and in the making) will be checked off the list. As we all know, demand causes sales and production. Stop buying and/or using plastic bags and production & sales will eventually cease.

No loss of technology would occur. Maybe it would even improve technology. People would make newer, more sophisticated bags. The United States would no longer have trouble with pollution of plastic bags. The workforce from plastic bag factories can help make greener, smarter and more eco-friendly materials.

So what did we carry our shopping in before plastic bags? Reusable bags! Most people have rucksacks, shoulder bags etc that could be used for shopping. It is just laziness that means that they take the plastic bags offered by supermarkets. All you have to do is carry 1-4 with you at all times.

Just carry your groceries its not like you are getting 3 gallons of milk, 2 boxes of cereal, and 10 cartons of cream cheese!

If ‘The over-packaging of merchandise creates far more clutter than plastic bags’, then wouldn’t having no plastic bags to add to that clutter make it a whole lot less clutter?

most of the products made with plastic are not exactly the “really essential “commodities
and moreover they didnt exist during our ancestors time , they never had any “difficulties of present time” technological development upto an extent is okay ,but further of it leads only to sorrow and devastation. It will not affect the products. We are talking about plastic bags. Not any plastic.

Is infrastructure really the problem? It is because we think that it is someone else’s problem that we misuse the plastic bags. Most people don’t even care about that the misuse so why bother to teach them when we can save the environment, and just get rid of them completely! Which should come first; the Earth’s environment, or puny little plastic bags? Unfortunately most plastic bags are not biodegradable, so yes, plastic bags do harm the environment. If you are asking people to USE the plastic bags, wouldn’t that mean more people throwing them on the streets? Paper bags can equally well do the job, they hold stuff just as well as plastic bags do.

Of course both types of bags have disadvantages. So while it can be asked, “what if the paper gets soggy and breaks? What do we do then?’ Well, I would respond with ‘Well, what if the weight is too heavy and the handles of the plastic bag snaps?” Paper bags are just as good as plastic ones, and so do many people around the world agree. I bet there was even a country where they had never heard about plastic bags, because they thought paper was just such a fantastic invention. So; the Earth’s environment, or puny little plastic bags?

So what about Infrastructure or what ever that is. They kill alot of animals you might see this picture and be horrified by the effect of plastic check this site on the below.http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/bags-choke-e1336237536746.jpg and also humans too this is not fake just to tell you i also could lose population!

Its plastic bags that are bad. not any plastic.