U.N. environment chief urges global ban on plastic bags

McClatchy Newspapers ^ | 6/8/09 | Grace Chung

[Crazieman]

WASHINGTON — Single-use plastic bags, a staple of American life, have got to go, the United Nations' top environmental official said Monday.

Although recycling bags is on the rise in the United States, an estimated 90 billion thin bags a year, most used to handle produce and groceries, go unrecycled. They were the second most common form of litter after cigarette butts at the 2008 International Coastal Cleanup Day sponsored by the Ocean Conservancy, a marine environmental group.

"Single use plastic bags which choke marine life, should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere. There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme. His office advises U.N. member states on environmental policies.

[Fresh Wind]

You mean “single use” condoms. The kind that choke marine life.

The heavy duty multi-use variety are still OK.

Cloth condoms are preferred, of course.

[Yankee]

Try a UN resolution. If you fold it correctly it will hold a lot of sh_t.

[Yankee]

This must be the reason that the Publix clerk now asks me “is plastic OK?” every time I shop.

I feel like saying “No. I’ll just stuff everything in my shorts.”

Politically correct a-holes.

Just to piss ‘em off I double-bag everything.

[gridlock]

I wouldn’t mind seeing the demise of thoses plastic bag. Lots of trees in my neighborhood catch those things and all you hear is the annoying plastic flutter in the wind for months until the bag is ripped loose.

That is not a plastic bag problem. That is a litter problem. Solid waste should be handled carefully and landfilled, otherwise it is a problem.

[Let's Roll]

This is right up there with using one or was it two sheets of tp a la Sheryl Crow.

[Red in Blue PA]

How much do you want to bet he has someone do all of his shopping for him?

[Red in Blue PA]

Plastic bags are perfect for picking up after dogs.

I would not want to imagine a world without them.

[hedgetrimmer]

You’re not supposed to have a cat. The UN says their litter boxes pollute the water.

[hedgetrimmer]

The politicians and bureaucrats here. Federal, state or local, most all of them are pushing UN policies.

[Mr Rogers]

I live in Arizona, so maybe I’m missing something...are cities along the coast dumping garbage into the ocean?

How do all these bags get there?

[myknowledge]

I, for one, wrap all my garbage in these bags. That's right, my mom and dad have the garbage wrapped in the plastic bags and have them placed in wheelie bins and carted out on the street every Monday night for garbage truck collection every Tuesday morning. For this guy to ban plastic bags worldwide, what's his agenda? Save the turtles and whales? I don't think so.

[norraad]

What needs to be banned (in the strictist sense) , are people who litter.

I know none of those wayward bags come from me or you.

That Indian should never have shed a tear, but rather released an arrow from his bow into litterbugs, that's the commercial I dream and shed a tear to see.

[randog]

Even the local landfill has problems with them. They have to erect huge fences downwind to catch them.

Paper bags work fine, decompose easily and can be recycled easier.

[randog]

Luv it, but the nabes won’t.

[myknowledge]

You mean hand out a three figure sum fine for every litterbug?

That’s what they do in Oz.

[gridlock]

Landfills have to be careful, too. That’s part of the job.

[Niuhuru]

And keeping jobs going. Silly stuff to them.

[Niuhuru]

Ideology (even conservative ideology) is not based on practicality.

It never is. Plastic is a great barrier to bacteria, but the dolts never take into consideration that their beliefs will affect THEM too, not exempt them.

[mad_as_he$$]

This so cracks me up. The enviro weenies insisted we could no longer use paper. Anyone with half a brain knew plastic was not the answer and that this problem would occur. So the answer was to go with reusable which typically carry large bacteria loads along with other diseases. Enviro weenies need to learn about the real would - but hey we “saved” all those trees and polluted the oceans and the landscape with bags.

[norraad]

That’s what they do in Oz, . . Oz had some very good rules.

Other countires impose such fines and the seem very clean(also wealthy).