Information failure on plastic bags?

The Times yesterday carried an article on a dispute among scientists about the true scale of the risks facing marine life from the deluge of plastic bags find their way into our seas and oceans. The article came at the end of a week when Marks and Spencer introduced a 5p per bag charge for food sales and Gordon Brown threatened government action unless the supermarkets take fresh steps to lower the volume of plastic bags used annually.

The Times report says that:

“Scientists and environmentalists have attacked a global campaign to ban plastic bags which they say is based on flawed science and exaggerated claims. The widely stated accusation that the bags kill 100,000 animals and a million seabirds every year are false. They pose only a minimal threat to most marine species, including seals, whales, dolphins and seabirds.”

And Charlie Mayfield, CEO of Waitrose flags up one possible unintended consequence from the plastic bag tax in Ireland that has been widely touted (including in this blog) as a tactic for cutting the number of bags households use in their shopping.

“Charlie Mayfield, chairman of retailer John Lewis, said that tackling packaging waste and reducing carbon emissions were far more important goals. “We don’t see reducing the use of plastic bags as our biggest priority,” he said. “Of all the waste that goes to landfill, 20 per cent is household waste and 0.3 per cent is plastic bags.” John Lewis added that a scheme in Ireland had reduced plastic bag usage, but sales of bin liners had increased 400 per cent”

We all face a dilemma when we are queueing up at the checkout and piling the next load of shopping into the elastic supply of plastic bags. They are incredibly convenient and reusable e.g. in collecting dog waste, in collecting paper, tins and glass for recycling, for storing dirty football boots on the way home from a match - in whatever way we choose. Might it be the case that manufacturing plastic bags is less carbon intensive that stiffened-paper bags? And whatever happened to those ultra-useful cardboard boxes that supermarkets used to routinely provide for customers by the side of the check-out counters?

The Times: Series of blunders turned the plastic bag into global villain