Plastic Bag Free March

In 2012 I participated in Plastic Free July which is a Western Australia initiative and it was quite an eye opener into how hard it is to avoid plastic and how deeply ingrained into our society it is.

This year in Queensland we have Plastic Bag Free March which I have signed up for.  The aim is to eliminate single use plastic bags by encouraging people to find alternatives.  Here are some of the reasons to get involved.

 Why get involved

• The National Litter Index (NLI) released in August 2013 found that Queensland is the worst performing mainland State.
• The Clean Up Australia Day 2012 Rubbish Report for Queensland showed that plastics make up 51% of the rubbish collected.
• Almost 20% of plastic packaging items picked up around Queensland since April 2013 has been plastic bags.
• The running tally of litter collected by Keep Queensland Beautiful shows that nearly 20% of plastic packaging items collected are single use plastic bags.
• Supermarkets account for 53% of plastic bag use; 47% come from other retail outlets.
• Every year, over six million tonnes of rubbish is dumped into the world’s oceans.  Plastic accounts for 80% of debris found in the world’s oceans. Of this, 10% is plastic bags.
• Plastic in the ocean kills over one million sea birds and 100,000 sea mammals annually.
• Ingested marine debris was responsible for killing about a third of turtles found dead in Moreton Bay.

If you want to be involved you can register here.  If you can't be involved please spread the word.

I will keep you updated with my progress, in the mean time check out this You Tube Clip