Bee-Eazy Reusable Bag Buzz

Plastic as Source of Alarming Marine Pollution

 
UNEP/GRID Report - 2009

The new UN Environment Program (UNEP) report Marine Litter: A Global Challenge is the first attempt to address the growing marine litter problem in seas around the world.  It was launched on World Oceans day, and UN Under-Secretary General/UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner describes marine litter as “symptomatic of a wider malaise: namely the wasteful use and persistent poor management of natural resources.”

He asserts that, “Some of the litter, like thin film 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."

Plastic is cited as one of the primary pollutants and greatest threats to marine life.  According to UNEP “Plastic – especially plastic bags and PET bottles – is the most pervasive type of marine litter around the world, accounting for over 80 percent of all rubbish collected in several of the regional seas assessed. Plastic debris is accumulating in terrestrial and marine environments worldwide, slowly breaking down into tinier and tinier pieces that can be consumed by the smallest marine life at the base of the food web.”  A study of fulmar seabirds in the North Sea found that 95 percent of them had plastic in their stomachs.

UNEP/GRID called for higher fines for ocean dumping as well as flexible economic incentives and deterrents to address the problem.

Download Marine Litter: A Global Challenge

Our Take: Once again plastic bags and bottles are singled out for their contribution to this problem.  Remember, all the plastic we produce and consume will last forever! Mindless over-consumption of use & toss items is at the root of this problem. -  it's up to all of us to wake up and consciously consume far fewer of them.

Plastic Toxins May Leach into Oceans

Wired.com 08.19.09

“Although plastic has long been considered indestructible, some scientists say toxic chemicals from decomposing plastics may be leaching into the sea and harming marine ecosystems.

Contrary to the commonly-held belief that plastic takes 500 to 1,000 years to decomposes, researchers now report that the hard plastic polystyrene begins to break down in the ocean within one year, releasing potentially toxic bisphenol A (BPA) and other chemicals into the water…”

 

Read Toxic Soup: Plastics Could be Leaching Chemicals Into Ocean

Bags Bee Gone proudly donates 1% of revenue to the environment

Each of us makes choices on a daily basis. Our choices may be simple, they may be significant, they may keep us up at night, and they often affect others. Can you recall the feeling of making a choice, taking action, or getting involved for something so righteous and inspiring that you could barely contain yourself?

In May 2010, Bags Bee Gone decided to become a member with an amazing organization called 1% For The Planet, and our expectations for the outcomes of this one choice have got us all fired up.

Founded in 2002, 1% For the Planet promotes giving from the business community to environmental organizations that are working toward preservation and restoration of our natural environment. Corporate membership with 1% For the Planet means a company pledges to donate 1% of gross annual sales to non-profit organizations with a focus on environmental causes and a successful track record. Over 1,000 businesses world-wide have become members with 1% For The Planet over the past six years, forming a veritable coalition of companies rooted in the fertile common grounds of financial commitment to creating a healthy planet.

We are tremendously excited to join with 1% For The Planet in support of efforts by non-profit organizations to protect and promote the wellness of this one great Earth. Membership with 1% For The Planet is one aspect of Bags Bee Gone's overall commitment to doing the right thing; we work very hard everyday to create the finest processes, products, and services so our customers can enjoy what they deserve: peace of mind. There are no greater gifts we can share with our children than clean air, clean water, richness in plant and animal species worldwide, and the ethic of stewardship for our environment. These are the outcomes we seek to support through our 1% For The Planet partnerships.

 

Environmental Impact

·  Hundreds of thousands of marine and land mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food. Since the plastic never goes away this problem continues when they die and the plastic particles are ingested by other animals.

 

·  Globally, over 1 million and 100 thousand marine mammals and turtles die every year from entanglement or ingestion of plastic. (LAIST. 1997)

 

·  Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration studies show they often wrap around living corals quickly "suffocating" and killing them. The ocean is especially susceptible to plastic pollution because it takes longer for the sun to break apart plastic in the ocean than on land due to the oceans’ cooling capacity (Algalita Marine Research Foundation)

 

·  The North Pacific Gyre: This vast expanse of ocean debris is held in place by swirling underwater currents. It stretches from about 500 nautical miles. The collection of plastic and liter is growing at an alarming rate. As recently as 2008 it's estimated to be twice the size of the continental United States.

 

·  Worldwide animal pollinators such as the honey bee are disappearing at an alarming rate due to Colony Collapse Disorder. CCD is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or Western honey bee colony abruptly disappear. It is believed that the bee's are losing their sense of direction to return to their hive. The term Colony Collapse Disorder was first applied to a drastic rise in the number of disappearances of Western honey bee colonies in North America and Europe in late 2006. The cause or causes of the syndrome are not yet fully understood, but it is believed to be attributed to environmental influences such as pesticide use, global warming, disease or malnutrition.

Our Landfills & Recycling

·  On average we use each plastic bag for only 12 minutes before disposing of it, contributing to global warming, depleting oil supplies, and driving up costs of home heating oil and gasoline. (United Nations Environmental Programme)

·  4 billion plastic bags end up as litter each year. Tied end to end that’s enough to circle the earth 63 times.

 

·  It takes up to 1000 years or longer for a plastic bag to degrade into smaller bits of plastic which can pose toxic threats to marine life and contaminate the food web.

 

·  Cities like San Francisco waste millions of tax dollars disposing plastic bags and have begin charging up to 17 cents per bag in disposal costs.

 

·  Paper bags take up more space in landfills, and do not degrade or break down at a substantially faster rate than plastic

 

·  Recycling rates of either type of disposable bag are extremely low, with only 10 to 15% of paper bags and 1 to 3% of plastic bags being recycled, according to the Wall Street Journal. In fact, it actually costs recycling companies around $4,000 to process and recycle 130,000 plastic

bags.

 

·  Recycling single-use plastic bags is just not economical. The quality of plastic used in these bags is poor and the inks used make it a difficult and tedious process.

 

·  Many bags collected never get recycled and are shipped to Third world countries where they are cheaply incinerated under more lax environmental laws.

Expedition to Giant Garbage Patch uncovers Plastic Pieces Large and Small

"Scientists who returned to the Bay Area this week after an expedition to the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' brought piles of plastic debris they pulled out of the ocean - soda bottle, cracked patio chairs, Styrofoam chunks, old toys, discarded fishing floats and tangled nets. But what alarmed them most, they said... was the nearly inconceivable amount of tiny, confetti-like pieces of broken plastic..."

An investigator described this excessive marine debris as the "new man-made epidemic," since the tiny pieces are believed to contain toxic chemicals and can absorb banned substances such as DDT. Not only is there a chemical threat, but the growing garbage patch debris poses danger to marine life and birds.

Read the entire article.

Study Shows Significant Environmental Toll of Plastics

Yale Environment 360: Environmental Toll of Plastics Yale Environment 360 - 07.02.09

“The amount of plastic that will be produced this decade will nearly equal the total produced in the 20^th century, and the substance is increasingly taking a toll on human health and the environment, a new study says...”

A study of more than 60 scientists published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B found the ill effects of this rapid, worldwide accumulation of plastic to include: significant changes to hormones that affect fetal development and other physiological processes, ingestion of millions of tons of plastic debris by marine animals, transport of invasive species by floating plastic debris that remains in oceans for thousands of years and leaching of harmful chemicals into groundwater from the plastic in landfills, among others.

Read the article: Yale Environment 360: Environmental Toll of Plastics (07.02.09)