Call for NSW ban on plastic bags

ORIGINAL: Call for nsw ban on plastic bags

Clean Up Australia has joined a coalition of environmental groups and concerned citizens including:

• Take 3
• Australian Seabird Rescue
• Lane Cove Sustainability Action Group
• Two Hands Project
• Save the Styx
• Tangaroa Blue Foundation
• Ecodivers
• Ocean Guardians
• Community Environment Network
• Ocean and Coastal Care Initiative (OCCI)
• Lake Macquarie Sustainable Neighbourhood Group
• Positive Change for Marine Life

to petition the NSW (New South Wales) government to ban single use singlet-style plastic bags.

We are seeking to eradicate one of the more deadly and unsightly rubbish items in our environment.

Download the petition form to join us and have your say (59.01kb)

What can you do?

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South Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT have all banned single use singlet style plastic bags, whilst the Tasmanian government will move to ban single use plastic bags at supermarket checkouts over the next three years.

Help us to make NSW the next state to join those already leading the way.

Say NO to Plastic bags in NSW: sign the petition asking Barry O’Farrell to stop making excuses and to listen to the people of NSW who are tired of the damage caused to our environment by plastic bags.

Why?

Plastic is the most common item removed by volunteers on Clean Up Australia Day. That plastic, if left in the environment, will outlive us all.

The facts about plastic bags in our environment:

• Australians use more than 10 million new plastic shopping bags every day.
• We dump 7,150 recyclable plastic bags into landfill every minute; that’s 3.93 billion bags per annum.
• More than 70% of the rubbish entering our oceans is plastic.
• Plastic bags travel - bags dumped in WA have been found on the east coast of South Africa. 
• 119,000 pieces of plastic float in each sq km of ocean (UNEP estimate)
• Plastic is photodegrable, breaking into increasingly small pieces and entering the food chain.
• Plastic kills up to 1 million sea birds, 100,000 sea mammals and countless fish each year.
• Plastic is released again into its deadly cycle when these animals decay.
• Plastic produces greenhouse gases, both in its production and as it breaks down.

Find out more about plastic, its impacts and the solutions.