Green Bags: Nations Reactions

Global warming is urgent reality; it is the greatest threat hanging over the future of mankind. Global warming is increasing the earth's temperature, which is caused by the use of fossil fuels, and industrial or agricultural processes.

Man-made emissions are adding to the amount of carbon dioxide already being naturally released. These harmful processes have been leading to a large increase in the buildup of "greenhouse gases," which are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and water vapor.

Lets try to overcome this by doing something "GREEN".

One way of achieving more "green" is to reduce the use of plastic bags and go for green bags. Heres a list of examples of how other countries are handling the "green" bags environmental issue.

Australia

Australian shoppers are now encouraged to buy "green bags" which cost only about a dollar.

Australians used 4.84 billion plastic bags in 2007.

Bangladesh

Plastic shopping bags are banned in Bangladesh, which clogg their drains during monsoons.

Bhutan

Plastic shopping bags, along with tobacco have been banned in Bhutan.

China

On June 1, throughout the entire country of China, all supermarkets, department stores and shops have been prohibited from giving out free plastic bags.

France

Growing awareness of the ecological impact of plastic bags has led main retailers to force customers to buy reusable plastic or non-woven bags. In Paris, a ban on plastic bags took effect in late 2007.

Germany

Generally, most German supermarkets charge between five and 25 cents per single-use bag, depending on the type of bag. Most shops also offer cloth bags or sturdier, woven plastic bags for about $1. Many high-end retail shops will provide bags free of charge.

Ireland

On March 4, 2002, the Republic of Ireland introduced a 15-cent levy on every plastic shopping bag. This led to a 90- per-cent reduction in use of plastic bags and increased use of reusable bags.

Israel

The country of Israel has enacted legislation to add a surcharge for every plastic bag. Bags that contain fish, meat, poultry or fresh produce won't incur any charge. Aside from that, every plastic bag given to a customer will incur a charge of 1 NIS (Cdn. $0.311222845) which will be shown as a separate item on the receipt.



New Zealand

In recent years, cloth bags have been promoted and sold by some supermarkets as an alternative to plastic bags. In August 2006, the Collingwood community in Golden Bay declared itself shopping bag free by a group of local residents who promoted the idea.

South Africa

Mohammed Valli Moosa, the Environment and Tourism Minister of South Africa, jokingly named plastic bags the national flower and worked to introduce a minimum legal thickness of 30 micrometres to increase their cost, reusability, and recyclability.


United Kingdom


Growing awareness in the U. K. of the problems caused by indiscriminate use of plastic bags is encouraging some large retailers to reward customers who bring their own bags or recycle existing bags.

Retailers in Modbury have voluntarily eliminated usage of plastic bags, the first town in the country to do so. More towns are following suit.

In 2007, IKEA became the country's first national retailer to abandon single use plastic bags altogether, instead offering their own range of bags for life which now come in two sizes: The blue bag and a brand new baby blue bag

On 24 July, 2007, Green- England. co.ukbegan a petition for a 10p tax to be introduced on disposable plastic bags, with the money to go to environmental projects.

United States

Plastic bags largely displaced paper bags as the most common type of shopping bag during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

There has been no broad government action against the litter problem. Proper household waste management (reuse when possible and not littering) is considered a personal responsibility or a locally enforced misdemeanor.

On March 27, 2007, the City and County of San Francisco became the first city to ban common plastic shopping bags, followed shortly by nearby Oakland.

Zanzibar

The island of Zanzibar banned the import and use of plastic shopping bags in November 2006.

People who litter with used bags are responsible for a significant problem, and government officials enacted the ban to protect tourism, an economic mainstay for the island.

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