Plastic bags do present a compelling cost and convenience proposition to both retail companies and consumers. Not only are they cheap, they are also versatile and sturdy enough to be used over and over again.
It’s no wonder that each year, an estimated 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide, which translates to over a million plastic bags used each minute, according to data from the environmental group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Unfortunately, WWF-Philippines says that most of these plastic bags end up in either landfills or bodies of water, posing a serious threat to sea turtles, whales and other endangered marine life that sometimes mistake the discarded plastic bags for food. In the Philippines, discarded plastic bags find their way into canals and narrow waterways, thus contributing to the regular flooding of towns and cities.
That these plastic bags are bad for the environment cannot be disputed, says Gregg Yan, communications manager of WWF-Philippines.
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“Typically made from polyethylene, which is derived from natural gas and petroleum, plastic bags don’t biodegrade—they photo-degrade and break down into smaller and more toxic particles on a molecular level to contaminate both water and soil. The danger is real and alarming: in a planet where everything is connected in very fundamental ways, these chemicals enter the food system to eventually poison the human body,” explains Yan.
Fortunately, the Philippines is finally waking up to the potential adverse effects of the continued use of plastic bags, and various groups as well as individuals are taking serious steps to limit or stop outright the use of plastic bags.
