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Old carrier bags – how to use them

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Nov 08, 2009

Summary

They are strong and they last 1,000 years. So don't waste energy recycling them – give your old bag a new lease of life

As you might imagine, a planet on the brink of ecological collapse (ie ours) has a number of pressing concerns. The plastic bag issue really is not one of them, and yet in terms of air time and emotion it punches well above its weight, particularly the landfill weight of plastic bags – they take up just 0.3% of landfill space. Other experts like to point out that their impact on wildlife has been over-egged, too. While you'll often hear that 100,000-plus marine mammals are killed every year by ingesting plastic bags, Greenpeace experts say wildlife deaths from plastic bags are few and far between.

But while we can establish that they are not the earth's primary nemesis, they are nonetheless extremely annoying. And, incidentally, there is a link to oceanic pollution: 6% of marine sediment has been found to be polyethylene, implicating them in microplastic pollution of the oceans.

The single-use carrier bag also represents an unconscionable use

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