The Australian federal government is considering banning plastic bags in Australia for environmental reasons. There have also been proposals to charge for use of plastic bags in other countries. As citizens and part of society, it is up to us to take a stand on this topic and call out the government if we disagree with their opinion. Though forcing a nation to cease production of plastic bags may be semi-beneficial to the environment, plastic bags have so many practical uses and should therefore not be banned or discouraged from using through ridiculous fines. Plastic bags have been around since 1977, whenever they were first introduced to supermarkets. Ever since then, civilization has relied on these bags to not only act as shopping containers but also as bin liners, lunch carriers, newspaper containers, dog feces holders, etc. Eliminating plastic bags would be eliminating a revolutionary product that has been produced for almost forty years. In fact, in 2002 four to five trillion plastic bags were produced globally; the plastic bag industry makes up a whole part of the global economy. I understand that in some places plastic bags clog the streets and drains, but we don’t live in a perfect world and the fact of the matter is, people are imperfect and are going to pollute the environment no matter what you do to try and stop it. Honestly, there is no real practical or sustainable replacement for plastic bags in today’s modern world; both paper and cloth are both environmentally hazardous and would clog up our waterways also. Though ceasing plastic bag production might save some of the plastic produced, we would just switch over to an environmentally unfriendly replacement like paper or cloth. I do not in any way enjoy watching Mother Nature’s beautiful home become ridden with plastic bags, but I believe that banning the production of plastic bags as a whole would just be a temporary fix, and not even a good temporary fix at that. As I say with all of my posts, I encourage you to call me out if you think I’m wrong or write reasons you agree with me in the comments section below. This is NextGeneration signing out.
Should plastic bags be banned?
