Follow South Australia’a example: ban plastic bags: Greens

The Greens have called on the Queensland government to follow the example of the South Australian government and ban plastic bags.

Greens spokesperson, Libby Connors, said everything was in place to achieve such a ban except for political will.

“There is a truckload of evidence that plastic bags are death to many marine creatures, there are practical alternatives that could be introduced now and up to 90 per cent of the Australian population supports such a move,” Dr Connors said.

“I call on Premier Bligh to demonstrate that she has some rudimentary green credentials and follow Mike Rann’s example.”

Australians use about 6.9 billion plastic bags per year.  Most of these go to landfill but between 50 and 80 million still find their way into the environment and many find their way into waterways and the ocean where they are ingested by such creatures as turtles, crocodiles, whales and birds like the albatross.

One overseas study estimated a figure of 100,000 marine animals killed annually by plastic debris, many from the more than 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in every square mile of the world’s oceans.

“Those retailers like Bunnings and Ikea who have already voluntarily put a small levy on plastic bags have found their usage has dropped by 90 per cent,” Dr Connors said.

“However, most retailers will not do this of their own accord and the federal government cannot persuade the states to take up a national program, so it is left to individual state governments to take the initiative.

“This is Anna Bligh’s chance to show she leads a government with backbone.”