Plastic bags hated, mostly

A seagull with a plastic bag.

With a single dissenting voice, those who responded to an appeal for ideas to curb plastic trash, simply wanted plastic bags banned. Here's what they said.

Wash out your bin
Very simple, ban plastic bags. Lets put our efforts into pressuring the govt into doing the right thing. Not hard to put groceries in the old brown paper sacks. Not hard to wash rubbish bins out instead of living them with plastic liners, then use the water on your garden.
Tracey Moreau

Follow Australia
It always amazes me how New Zealand is so far behind on so many issues and forever tries to reinvent the wheel. Re plastic bags, look no further than across the ditch.

A ban on lightweight single-use shopping bags in South Australia came into effect on 4 May 2009 (yes, 6 years ago). South Australia was the first state in Australia to ban their use. Since then, the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory have also moved to ban their use.

In 2012 a review was done. Conclusion: "The ban on lightweight single-use plastic bags has been highly effective at reducing the supply of lightweight single-use plastic bags from South Australia and changing consumer behaviour to alternatives to plastic shopping bags."

Monique Olivier
Auckland

Bags kill birds
I absolutely agree with Professor Roberta Farrell to ban plastic bags altogether. I'm surprised they have been allowed to flood our market. Last Sunday I came across a large grey seagull flying up and down Claude Road, Manurewa, with a plastic bag stuck to it.
Myself and another likeminded lady did our best to try and remove this killer from the tiring bewildered bird but with no avail as it kept flying away. We alerted the property owners where the bird was seen also. We also contacted bird rescue who said they could do nothing if the bird was still flying, and SPCA could do nothing either. We should all watch "Happy feet" again and it should be shown regularly in all primary schools as well as part of the education.
Anne Doherty

Don't ban plastic bags
I am so against litter and the stories you hear about plastic in the oceans but also totally against banning plastic bags!

With all modern inventions a complete life cycle needs to be provided to the consumer if a product is to go onto shelves. Councils must provide recycle drop off points for plastic bags and plastic non-rigid sheeting; small shopping bags to garden LDPE compost plastic bags and black roofing plastic. We should be able to put these into our blue wheelie bins now (Auckland Council) . . . Plastic bags should be recycled into things like garden pavers, fence posts, shipping pallets.

In India Plastic bags are being used to make up about 10% of hot Asphalt mix to make roads, why are we not doing that here, apparently the roads are more durable as well.
Also, re-introduce glass bottles for fizzy drink bottles or offer a 10c refund for returned used plastic bottles. That 10c refund is to be paid to the consumer by upping the price of every bottled plastic product. Banning them is the lazy solution, the issue is lack of recycling facilities. Years ago I wrote a number of emails to the Green Party complaining that there was no where to dispose of used motor oil, now there is a drop of point at every Repco and these are well used.
Lawrence

Banning plastic bags was not the only idea, here are some additional comments:

Plastic eating fungi
I have no new idea on how to stop people throwing plastic objects down so that they are washed into the sea, but I am reading Paul Stamets' book, Mycelium Running, how mushrooms can help save the world. There is a mycelium which breaks down some plastic. (Also, students from Yale's annual "Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory" have discovered and brought back a fungus new to science, one with a voracious appetite for polyurethane).
Jim Hunt.

Tax plastic resin
Tax all plastic resin at source and manufactured plastic goods as they enter the country. The money should be kept in a separate fund and paid out to those who return it for recycling or proper disposal. I think NZ (and much of the remainder of the world) simply needs the political will to address the problem.
Bryan Pulham
Swanson
Auckland

Plastic art
I think that the article you wrote looking for ideas was great - thank you for your efforts addressing this important cause. Here is one idea that we have found works quite well - using plastic removed during clean-ups to make artworks that extend the reach of the educational message. For examples:
- Made at the seafood festival
- Made for Art In The Dark
Sam Judd, Sustainable Coastlines

Plastic tax
I think we should have some sort of plastic tax imposed upon businesses, while compostable biodegradable packaging could be subsidised as an option for businesses out of those funds raised. No matter how many beach clean-ups happen, plastic will still end up in our oceans unless change happens up top. It should be way easier as a consumer to make decisions in a grocery store or cafe that will have a minimal impact on the environment.

Brodie Jean Hoare

Northland affected
I live in Bay of Islands and regularly walk the beach from Te Haumi to Paihia, picking up rubbish on the way. There is a shocking number of plastic bags on the beach...mostly supermarket bags.

Outlaw plastic bags in supermarkets! The Warehouse charges 10 cents for a plastic bag so most Warehouse shoppers bring their own or go without. Warehouse estimated they'd use 20 million fewer plastic bags in one year. New World, Countdown and Four Square need to follow suit.

We also pick up a lot of plastic clothes pegs on our Opua/Paihia beaches. Apparently they're used for oyster farming but why can't they use the old fashioned one-piece wooden clothes peg?
Adele Earnshaw
Opua, Bay of Islands

Clean-up, monitoring system
The Hauraki Gulf is one of the beautiful natural play grounds on earth and is a treasure we should be protecting for future generations. Unfortunately the state of the shorelines and water quality in the gulf deteriorates every year. Recreational and commercial boaties continue to dump everything human waste, excess fish catch and rubbish in its many forms directly into our local shores. The out of sight is out of mind mentality sees us following so many other countries who now have an ecosystem which is now beyond repair. One the most destructive forms of rubbish is probably the plastic bag as it doesn't break down for such a lengthy period of time and blocks everything in its path.

I have been sailing in the Hauraki Gulf for 40 years, firstly as a child with my parents and then later on my own boats. The decline of our beautiful marine playground has got to stop or at the very least we need to employ methods to slow its rate of decline. What I would like to oversee is a clean-up and monitoring system. I would have the gulf split into 4 regions with 1 person with a vessel responsible for the coast and waterways in that set area. Their tasks would be to document and measure the effect of waste on their area, bring it into public's view and with the aid of volunteers oversee a rotational clean-up of their set area.

. . . There are costs associated with this venture which I don't have the funds to cover. I am, however, happy to help source funding and instigate an operation such as this myself.

Greg Stansfield