Anti-Plastic Bag Lobby

[ozwinner]

I was doing a bit of bush walking with my sister-inlaw a few years ago and I was eating an orange. of course, the peel was just flung into the bush. Did she go off her head about how it took 20 years for orange peel to completely detoriate. BIG BLOODY DEAL. Who cares? It is a part of nature that had just been returned to nature,. So what if she didn't especially like the colour orange in the bush? It is still going to rot down and provide food for something alse.
Apart from that, the greenies do themselves no favours by making outrageous claims such as these. Orange peel will disappear withing a few weeks. Just dry out and rot away.
You should have heard what she said when I threw a plastic bag onto the camp fire?

Maaaate, she should have been with me when I threw away an orange Monaro back in the 70's.

Al

[Bob Willson]

Damn Al, don't you wish you still had that now? Wouldn't it look great in front of the craporium?

[ozwinner]

Unfortunately, the plastic bags are not disposed of properly. Of the 6.9 billion plastic bags that are used in Australia each year. 80 odd million of them end up in the environment. .

Only 80 million out of 6.9 BILLION is real good odds, so realy there is no big issue about plastic bags, well not as big an issue as it could be??

100,000 animals die as a result. They do take years to break down. .

Them bloody animals always take ages to break down, and they stink while the do it, not like plastic bags, they dont stink at all!!

Al

[Bob Willson]

Sorry Al. I tried to give you some green but it wouldn't let me.

[ozwinner]

Damn Al, don't you wish you still had that now? Wouldn't it look great in front of the craporium?

Sorry Bob, I was just teaseing, I am a Ford man through and through, if you cut bits off me, it says "Ford", just like Blackpool Rock.

Al

[Bob Willson]

Bob, you sister in-law is a little silly.

Tell me about it.

[Sturdee]

Unfortunately, the plastic bags are not disposed of properly.

So we agree that the real problem is the lack of proper disposal and not the plastic bags as such. So why don't they concentrate on that aspect instead of trying to make me look a criminal when I carry a plastic bag.

It would be the same as saying there are car accidents because of improper driving behaviour so let's take away the cars and make everyone walk or use only public transport.

BTW we also use the green bags when shopping but sometimes plastic bags are very handy.

Peter.

[ozwinner]

So we agree that the real problem is the lack of proper disposal and not the plastic bags as such. So why don't they concentrate on that aspect instead of trying to make me look a criminal when I carry a plastic bag.

It would be the same as saying there are car accidents because of improper driving behaviour so let's take away the cars and make everyone walk or use only public transport.

BTW we also use the green bags when shopping but sometimes plastic bags are very handy.

Peter.

It would be the same as saying there are car accidents because of improper driving behaviour so let's take away the cars and make everyone walk or use "plastic bags."

Al

[Grunt]

Fundamentally plastic bags are wasteful. They are made from a valuable and dwindling resource. Oil. It is estimated that we have now used 50% of the oil reserves the world has. The next 50% will go considerably faster than the first 50%. 20 to 30 years?

If you reduce them at source then less of them will end up in the environment. Also, landfills are not environmentally sound. Poisons will eventually find there ways into the underground water systems from landfills. The more landfills we have the more opportunities for environmental damage. More rubbish = more landfills.

[DavidG]

I love greenies.
Every where I have planted a greenie first the trees grow much better.

[Bob Willson]

It is estimated that we have now used 50% of the oil reserves the world has. The next 50% will go considerably faster than the first 50%. 20 to 30 years?

Well there you go, another 20 or 30 years and no more plastic bag problems. So what are we worried about?

[craigb]

Our house hold has managed to reduce our bag use by more than 50%. It was simple. Buy half a dozen or so of the reusable bags and use them. Quite simple really.

I reckon it'd be more like 90% in our place. Also whenever I'm asked if I "want a bag" I'll more than likely to say no unless I REALLY need it.

However having said all that, we now have to buy kitchen bin liners.

I think we're stiil ahead of where we were though.

[echnidna]

Fundamentally plastic bags are wasteful. They are made from a valuable and dwindling resource. Oil. It is estimated that we have now used 50% of the oil reserves the world has. The next 50% will go considerably faster than the first 50%. 20 to 30 years?

If you reduce them at source then less of them will end up in the environment. Also, landfills are not environmentally sound. Poisons will eventually find there ways into the underground water systems from landfills. The more landfills we have the more opportunities for environmental damage. More rubbish = more landfills.

There are flaws in the argument.
Plastics can be made from cellulose = trees which we can grow.

Alternates to plastic bags are,

Paper bags - so we woodchip more trees
btw Paper manufacturing is the 2nd most pollutant industry worldwide

So lets use cotton bags
oops ... the most pollutant industry of the lot

Oil reserves, maybe, but
An industrialised but enegry starved country could come up with a viable alternate to petroleum powered vehicles.

The whole world could change overnight, specially if the new fuel was very low cost. And if governments can't use it as a revenue base we will see a fuel revolution.

Theres a couple of hundred plants that could produce the equivalent to petroleum oil. Most of them are arid country plants.

Rant off for a while

[sl_wilks]

Hey Grunt,


As I understand it plastic bags are made from the lightest part of the distillate- ethylene, which used to be and sometimes still is flared off because it's hard to acpture and nobody wants it.

DavidG, thank you for the funniest quote I have ever heard. Cheered me up immensely.

[kiwigeo]

Hey Grunt,


As I understand it plastic bags are made from the lightest part of the distillate- ethylene, which used to be and sometimes still is flared off because it's hard to acpture and nobody wants it.

I think youll find these days most wet gas projects will send both the gas and liquids to market rather than produce the liquids and flare the gas. A common procedure is to initally strip off the gas and reinject it back into the reservoir while shipping off the liquids to market. Once the liquids are depleted theyll then start piping the reinjected gas. Bayu Undan in the Timor Sea is a good example of this process.

The only time youll see big flares on platforms these days is when theres been an unplanned event such as a compressor shut down