Push aside plastic items from now on
REFUSE to use plastic shopping bags, takeaway containers, cutlery, coffee cups, lids, straws and beverage bottles for the entire month of July and beyond.
The Two Oceans Aquarium yesterday announced its commitment to the global Plastic Free July campaign, as plastic has a huge impact on the environment, especially the ubiquitous single-use plastic shopping bag, which has a functioning lifespan of 20 minutes before it is discarded.
The aquarium’s environmental campaigner, Hayley McLellan, who heads the Rethink-the-bag campaign, said South Africans use 8 billion shopping bags each year, with about 96% of the bags ending up in landfills or polluting waterways, threatening marine life.
“A plastic shopping bag-free South Africa is achievable in the near future. All role-players, especially consumers, remain responsible for the approximately 8 billion plastic shopping bags we use every year in South Africa. Remember that demand drives supply, so let’s simply stop demanding and choosing them,” said McLellan.
Aquarium spokesperson Renee Leeuwner said 80% of marine litter is plastic, which lasts between 500 and 1 000 years before disintegrating, while research indicates that by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean.
“From the tiniest organism to the largest ocean behemoths, plastic poses a threat to all organisms in the ocean.
“More than a million seabirds are killed each year due to plastic pollution and with over 51 trillion pieces of micro-plastics in the ocean, microscopic plankton are feeding on plastic, which causes the plastic to enter the food chain,” said Leeuwner.
Research had shown that marine and terrestrial animals mistake plastic bags for food and die from intestinal blockages and starvation. and because plastics don’t break down or degrade, the chemicals leach into the environment and have a toxic impact on the food chain, said Leeuwner.
“By consistently using long-life alternatives, for all single-use plastic items, straws, bottles, bags, coffee cups and utensils, we tap into a deeper value-centric state of being that is ecologically driven, shifting us away from being the throw-away society we have become,” said McLellan.