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Thursday, July 29, 2010
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Serving Maine and Lincoln County for over a century. |
Volume 135 Issue 30 |
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| 12/17/2008 2:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | LA Climate Action Club Launches Community Outreach To Reduce Plastic Bags
By Chloe Maxmin
This week the Lincoln Academy Climate Action Club celebrates the holiday season with the launch of the community outreach phase of its campaign to reduce the use of plastic bags in our town.
Climate Action Club members will hand out canvas bags and fact sheets that highlight the hazards of plastic bags. On Monday and Thursday, students will be at the Coastal Marketplace. On Tuesday and Friday, students will be on Main St. On Wednesday students will also be going door to door to personally deliver copies of fact sheets and discuss the issues. Fact sheets will also be available in the library, some shops, Hannaford, and a number of local churches.
The club hopes that community members will take the pledge to help reduce the use of plastic bags by switching to canvas bags for their shopping needs. People can mail their pledge to the Club, or sign up at the club's website, laclimateaction.webs.com. A short video on the Club's campaign and the effects of plastic bags entitled "First Here, Then Everywhere" will be shown on LCTV, the local access cable channel.
Plastic bags are hazardous to the natural environment and contribute significantly to global warming. One million plastic bags are used every minute around the world. More than 100 billion of these bags are used in the U.S. annually, and less than 5 percent of these are recycled. Plastic bags release poisonous materials into the soil damaging water sources. They photo degrade in landfills, releasing toxic chemicals that take up to 1000 years to biodegrade.
Plastic bags also increase dependence on fossil fuels. It requires 12 million barrels of oil to produce the plastic bags that the U.S. consumes annually. This pollution is extremely harmful and causes many health and environmental problems, while contributing to global warming. The production of bioplastics-an alternative made of natural resources and considered more eco-friendly-requires as much or more energy than plastic bags.
Cities and stores around the world are beginning to ban or tax plastic bags. Ireland has implemented a 10p tax on plastic bags. Within a few months, plastic bag use was cut by 90 percent.
Nearly everyone bought reusable cloth bags, as carrying plastic bags became socially unacceptable. San Francisco was the first U.S. city to ban plastic bags in 2007 and now requires paper, canvas, or biodegradable bags.
In China, two billion plastic bags requiring five million tons of crude oil are used each year. The Chinese government banned free plastic bags at all stores as of June 2008. London has also banned free plastic bags. The Maine Legislature has passed a joint resolution to encourage the public to reduce the use of plastic bags by 50 percent.
The Climate Action Club believes that small community efforts can make a big difference in the fight against global warming. One major tool is to switch to canvas shopping bags and reduce the use of plastic bags.
(Lincoln Academy's student-run Climate Action Club takes an active leadership role in the school and community to fight global warming, raise awareness, and make a difference. Chloe Maxmin is a member of the class of 2009.)
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