We all do it how terrible moldable bags are for the environment — they choke wildlife , they do n’t break down in landfills ( or in ocean ) , theyadd to our demand for oil , and they are n’t promiscuous to recycle , which is the biggest rationality why 90 percent of pliant bags in the U.S. are not recycled .
Yet an estimate 500 billion to 1 trillion charge plate bags are used worldwide every year-380 billionof those in the U.S.—and governments have been tardily - moving at expert to do anything about them .
According to Salon , a study a few years ago " found that the ink and colorants used on some bags contain Pb , a toxin . Every year , Americans throw away some 100 billion charge plate bags after they ’ve been used to transport a prescription home from the drugstore or a dry quart of milk from the grocery store . It ’s tantamount to dumping closely 12 million gun barrel of petroleum . "
But things are finally starting to pick up . Here ’s a quick look at a few spot around the earth that have ban credit card bags , or at least place a tax on their use .
United States
In California , the ban started in San Francisco in select stores ; if pending legislation cash in one’s chips through , it could soonexpand to all storesnot only in the city , butin the entire state .
A interchangeable proscription exists incoastal North Carolinaand was latterly passedin Portland .
England
In 2007 , Modbury became the first town to ban the pliant udder in Britain , where 13 billion plastic bags are given aside every year . If customer forget to get their own , report the Times Online , " a range of bag made of recycled cotton with organic and fairtrade authentication will be useable from
Other citieshave followed suit , some justa few months ago , and there are efforts to make London plastic handbag - free by the time the Olympics come around in 2010 . According to theDaily Mail , " Londoner expend 1.6billion charge plate suitcase a year - for an norm of just 20 transactions per base . "
Mexico
Mexico City adopteda Bachelor of Arts in Nursing last summertime — the second major city in the westerly hemisphere to do so .
India
India seems to be film the star in BAN on charge plate bags , althoughenforcement is sometimes questionable . Cities includingDelhi , Mumbai , Karwar , Tirumala , Vasco , Rajasthanall have a ban on the bag .
Burma
A ban function into upshot ( with little observation ) in Rangoon deep last year . In neighboring China , the use of plastic bagsis trammel .
Bangladesh
Plastic bags have been banned in Bangladesh since 2002 , after being receive to be responsible for the 1988 and 1998 floods that inundate most of the country .
Rwanda
The land , which has had aban on shaping bagsfor year , has a report for being one of the cleanest nations not only on the continent , but in the earthly concern .
Australia
Sydney ’s OysterBay was the first Australian suburban area to ban plastic bags . Twelve towns in Australia are now said to be shaping bag - free — an exertion to slew down on the estimated 6.7 billion plastic bag used in Australia every year .
Taxed, not banned
Plenty of other place have chosen not to ban credit card bag , but to warn them through financial means . There have been taxes onplastic bags since before 2008 in Italy , Belgium , and Ireland , where plastic pocketbook use dropped by 94 percent within weeks of the 2002 ban . In Switzerland , Germany , and Holland , the bag occur with a fee .
And , in one lone case ( that I could notice ) of a reversal on a banning after it was follow up , Taiwan had a ban on formative bags for three years before itlifted it in 2006 .
