Nepal attempts record with a Dead Sea of plastic bags

Young Nepalis created a map of the Dead Sea with used plastic bags Wednesday in a bid to set a new international record and raise awareness about the vast volumes polluting the world’s oceans.

Volunteers tied 100,000 colourful used plastic bags on a metal grid 20 metres (65 feet) long and five metres (16 feet) tall, shaped like the Dead Sea, on open ground in Kathmandu’s city centre.

The record attempt was organised with a slogan “One Dead Sea is enough for us”.

“We decided to tie plastic bags and make a sculpture of the Dead Sea to spread awareness over the world to minimise waste of plastic,” Surgeon BC of Stem Foundation Nepal, the group that organised the event, told AFP.

Global plastic production has grown rapidly, and is currently more than 400 million tonnes per year.

It is estimated that two to five percent of plastics wind up in the oceans, where much of it breaks down into tiny particles that harm marine life.

Also: BERLIN: Cabinet has approved a ban on most plastic bags, set to take effect at the beginning of 2020.

Austria’s

Under the legislation initiated Wednesday, Austria’s center-right government plans to ban all bags that aren’t fully degradable. It also plans to ban the addition of tiny plastic particles to cosmetic and cleaning products, unless the European Union has a solution to that issue before 2020.

The government says that the planned ban would eliminate 5,000 to 7,000 tons of plastic waste every year. It says that Austria is going further than European Union rules require, and that it is joining

and Italy in introducing bans on non-biodegradable plastic

France

bags.