Day Ninety-One: bye-bye baggie

Well, the dominoes are falling. Today, Australian environment minister Peter Garrett (and former Midnight Oil band member, I gather!) confirmed that he will press ahead with his plan to ban plastic bags. This has been mooted for some time, but appears to have gathered pace in light of yesterday's Chinese announcement. As today's linked article from the Sydney Morning Herald outlines, there has been plenty of complaint from retailers, but Garrett has said a complete ban is the right answer and that the nation should 'get cracking on it'. Of the 4 billion plastic bags produced in Australia every year, most end up in landfill currently. Meanwhile, as The Gothamist reports today, New York City has not moved to ban plastic bags but it is trying to do something about the landfill issue, by demanding that all large stores carry recycling bins so that shoppers can drop off their bags to be recycled into other plastic goods. It's something, at least. Meanwhile, I'll keep forcibly preventing shop assistants from putting my purchases in yet another plastic bag (or sometimes, inexplicably, in two bags, one lining the other)... every little bit of waste-reduction helps!