the dangers of plastic bags (pdf)
TRANSCRIPT
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Data released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency
shows that somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are
consumed worldwide each year.
National Geographic News September 2, 2003
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Less than 1% of bags are recycled. It cost more to recycle a bag than
to produce a new one.
- Christian Science Monitor News Paper
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“There's harsh economics behind bag recycling: It costs $4,000 to
process and recycle 1 ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold on the commodities market for $32”
- Jared Blumenfeld (Director of San Francisco's Department of the Environment)
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Then…
Where Do They Go?
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A study in 1975, showed oceangoing vessels together dumped 8 million pounds of plastic annually. The real reason that the world's
landfills weren't overflowing with plastic was because most of it ended up in an ocean-fill
- U.S. National Academy of Sciences
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Bags get blown around…
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…to different parts of our lands
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…and to our seas, lakes and rivers.
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Bags find their way into the sea via drains and sewage pipes
- CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007
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Plastic bags have been found floating north of the Arctic Circle
near Spitzbergen, and as far south as the Falkland Islands
- British Antarctic Survey
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Plastic bags account for over 10 percent of the debris washed up on
the U.S. coastline
- National Marine Debris Monitoring Program
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Plastic bags photodegrade:Over time they break down into
smaller, more toxic petro-polymers
- CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007
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which eventually contaminate soils and waterways
- CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007
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As a consequence microscopic particles can enter the food chain
- CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007
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The effect on wildlife can be catastrophic
- World Wildlife Fund Report 2005
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Birds become terminally entangled
- World Wildlife Fund Report 2005
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Nearly 200 different species of sea life including whales, dolphins, seals and turtles die due to plastic bags
- World Wildlife Fund Report 2005
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They die after ingesting plastic bags which they mistake for food
- World Wildlife Fund Report 2005
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So…
What do we do?
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If we use a cloth bag, we can save 6 bags a week
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That's 24 bags a month
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That's 288 bags a year
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That's 22,176 bags in an average life time
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If just 1 out of 5 people in our country did this we would save
1,330,560,000,000 bags over our life time
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Bangladesh has banned plastic bags
- MSNBC.com March 8, 2007
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China has banned free plastic bags
- CNN.com/asia January 9, 2008
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Ireland took the lead in Europe, taxing plastic bags in 2002 and have now reduced plastic bag
consumption by 90%
- BBC News August 20, 2002
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In 2005 Rwanda banned plastic bags
- Associated Press
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Israel, Canada, western India, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan, and Singapore have also banned or are moving
toward banning the plastic bag
- PlanetSave.com February 16, 2008
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On March 27th 2007, San Francisco becomes first U.S. city
to ban plastic bags
- NPR.org (National Public Radio)
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Oakland and Boston are considering a ban
- The Boston Globe May 20, 2007
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Plastic shopping bags are made from polyethylene:
a thermoplastic made from oil
- CNN.com/tecnhology November 16, 2007
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Reducing plastic bags will decrease foreign oil dependency
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China will save 37 million barrels of oil each year due to their ban of
free plastic bags
- CNN.com/asia January 9, 2008
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It is possible...