Exercise 36, p. 87 (Writing Better Essays)
Please See a Student’s Sample Essay written with my assistance (Dr Jennifer Minter) : the plastic bag problem cannot be binned
Plastic bags are detrimental to our environment. They kill wildlife, block up our rivers and drains and cause environmental havoc. Quite frequently penguins and sea turtles get entangled in plastic bags, and are unable to free themselves. This is because so many people are litter bugs and just unwittingly throw bags onto the ground. These get swept up in the wind, and dumped elsewhere. These are the people most at fault. They are so careless and thoughtless. When this occurs it is not the people that suffer but the animals. Animals can’t tell the difference between right and wrong, let alone tell the difference between consumable food and plastic bags. These innocent animals are choking themselves to death. Animals just think this is another part of their diet. How can we blame them? Australia is meant to be a clean country with all Australians being passionate about their nation and the welfare of it. Plastic bags should not be part of this environment!
Voluntary campaigns and bag guilt are not working. Only an astonishing 2.7% out of 4.8 billion are returned for recycling. People are not taking much action in reducing plastic bag usage. Most counties around the world have already banned the bag, so what’s keeping Australia up? Isn’t Australia meant to be known as a land that prides itself on its natural environment? The global warming advertisements we see on billboards and on the television by the government try to tell us to reduce greenhouses gasses, yet they are not taking action about the misuse of plastic bags and how they are damaging the environment. The government is already employing more then enough workers to stand and guard the rubbish in landfills, so plastic bags won’t blow away. How much more money does the government want to spend on this?
Levies do work. Thankfully many stores are taking a stance and introducing a surcharge. This move is a positive sign that companies want to be “environmental friendly”. Bunnings warehouse chain charges 10 cents for a plastic bag. Homewares retailer IKEA introduced its own 10 cent plastic bag levy in one of its Victorian stores and achieved a 97% weekly reduction in plastic bag use. Borders announced a 70 per cent reduction since introducing a 10 cent levy in February. Fast food retailer McDonald’s has never used plastic bags and Red Rooster recently scrapped them. A levy makes shoppers more aware of the extra cost as they don’t want to fork up any more cash. This also makes shoppers more responsible, as they often take their own bags.
In addition many towns also have totally banned the use of plastic bags such as Coles bay in Tasmania and Oyster bay and Kangaroo Valley in NSW. The South Australian government also needs to be congratulated as they are going to introduce their pledge to ban the bag from the beginning of Jan 2009. Hopefully this will be a great success and other states will pick up the brave move.
Former Federal Environment minister Peter Garret backed away form a levy in April, as he didn’t want to put another tax on Australian families. This is a very weak stance for our federal environment minister. He doesn’t realise that this tax would only apply if people wanted to use plastic bags. If people make an effort to reuse their bags, they will be making a big difference, and it will not cost them anything. If we can’t solve these simple problems, how are we going to solve the bigger problems of greenhouse gasses?
The facts speak for themselves. People must take action. It’s all the little steps that matter and they do all add up. We all live on the same planet and we all want the best for ourselves, family and our future generations. We need to change our shopping habits and think “green” every time we shop. Taxes are the one thing that make people change their habits and think about bringing their own bags to the supermarket. Hopefully in the future the environment won’t be full of plastic bags and we will be able to save these animals that are being killed for no reason. This means that the whales with eight meters of plastic and the poor farmer’s calves. Every little bit counts.
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