In addition, plastic bags take up less space than paper bags, both in storage and in the cashier. Unlike plastic bags, reusable cloth bags take up more space and are considerably heavier. Please wait a moment and try again. Plastic bags, although a global phenomenon, seem quintessentially American, as they offer stores an easy and cheap solution to keep more benefits (paper bags cost, on average, five times more than plastic bags) and offer space for free advertising.
However, the concept of marketing in a free disposable container to carry purchases dates back to the 1870s, when Massachusetts designer Margaret Knight revolutionized disposable packaging and created a machine to produce flat bags that unfolded to have rectangular bottoms, as is still seen in sandwich bags and grocery bags today. A decade later, the bag was improved, mass-marketed and, yes, it was used as a way for stores to advertise their logo and name abroad. Sure, most plastics (including plastic bags) can be recycled, but there's a lot of plastic for everyone, and in fact, a surprisingly small amount is recycled. Plastic bags are lightweight and can travel long distances in the wind and are often deposited in our waterways once they are flooded.
Most of the plastic produced ends up in landfills, but 8 million metric tons of plastic thrown in the trash continue to end up in the ocean every year. Plastic bags thrown away look a lot like jellyfish in water, so animals mistake them for food and eat them, harm or kill them. A study conducted at Sydney Harbor last year found that many edible fish species contained plastic nanoparticles in their meat, meaning they could cause serious harm to an animal that might eat them, including humans. In Queensland, other petitions have been filed (here and here) to ban plastic bags in that state.
However, single-use plastic bags are still free in most American states, and when more municipalities and states push for legislation to regulate plastics, controversy often ensues. We reached the moon, the Beatles recorded their last album and broke up, and Studio 54 was in full swing before plastic shopping bags were introduced in the United States, around 1979. Unless you live in a place where plastic bags are banned, such as Hawaii, or taxed, such as in Washington D. They allow stores an easy and cheap solution to keep more profits (paper bags cost, on average, five times more than plastic bags) and offer space for free advertising. Plastic lasts forever: Every piece of plastic ever made is still somewhere and can take thousands of years to degrade into smaller particles. Some suburbs, such as Sydney's Oyster Bay and Huskisson, on the south coast of New South Wales, have also voluntarily banned bags to help reduce plastic waste.
Of the trillions of plastic bags that are used around the world each year, it's impossible to know how many are disposed of properly, although approximately 1 percent are recycled and countless numbers are converted to garbage. Prolific plastic bags have now become one of the most obvious wastes on streets and beaches, as they endanger marine life when ingested by animals and ruin habitats. The first local ban on plastic bags in Australia occurred in Tasmania in 2003, with the idea of helping to protect whales that migrate off the coast of this island state.
