There seems to be the same amount of plastic bags littering the place. The only difference is they mostly don't advertise the shop.  Ie 711 etc. It is very convenient for major shopping centers and shops to not supply free bags. It would be a huge cost saving as printed bags are not cheap .Maybe it's just me but i still have an overflowing collection of plastic bags under the sink. Do you think the banning has made any significant difference in number of bags littering the city.? One take away meal may contain several different bags for each order? I am all for stopping waste and all that But has it benefited anyone other than shops that save on printing? Just a thought? 

Made no real difference at all in my opinion.

 

But is it just coincidence 

as soon as all these countries have banned sterile plastic shopping bags

and plastic straws we have a hugely spreading pandemic?

 

It never happened when we had our straws and shopping bags did it?

 

13 hours ago, johnmcc6 said:

i still have an overflowing collection of plastic bags under the sink

Cary a cloth bag and refuse the plastic bag.  Lots of people doing it all helping.

Every little bit helps. If we all do our part to help protect the planet, we can make a difference. We might not 'see' that difference for several years, but as we've been dumping plastic for almost fifty years, it will take more than a year or two not using them to make an appreciable difference.

Bad habits aren't broken overnight.

We keep 5 cloth bags in the car and fill them when we go shopping, if at anytime someone offers us a plastic bag, we refuse, usually a small Big C or 7/11 store.

 

There was a reason they banned them, for example, wales and all sorts of sea animals, including endangered turtles were washing up on shores with stomachs full of plastic bags and when some of these plastics (white take away containers) break down in the sea, fish swallow them and guess where the fish end up, yep on someone's dish, bin appetite.

 

I can't believe when people go out, how they dispose of their plastic let alone rubbish, too easy, leave it behind or just throw it somewhere when someone is not looking.

 

We have 3 bins at home, one for rubbish, usually paper wipes or tissues, bathroom stuff and all of that gets burnt off as we don't have a rubbish collection service, although the village next to us does, but our mayor has no balls and says people here don't want to pay for the service, which is cheap as a packet of crisps per month, so everyone burns, great solution !!!, anyway that's another story, the 2nd bin is for recycling, and the 3rd is for everything plastic which I take with me when out and about and put a bag or two in a public bin, not keen on burning plastic anymore than burning household rubbish, so I am forced to dispose of it this way, also all food stuff, off cuts, scraps goes in the garden.

 

It isn't hard to do but it all boils down to 2 things, education and not being lazy. I do hope in my life time they do force farmers to not burn and use machinery in the future, but with my hour glass already past 3 quarters, I doubt I will get that fresh air in the mornings.

While plastic bags are a source, consider this re: microplastics ...

As shown in Figure 4 for the central scenario, close to two-thirds (63.1%) of the releases are due to first the laundry of synthetic textiles (34.8%), and second to the erosion of tyres while driving (28.3%). The order is the same in the pessimistic scenario

https://www.iucn.org/content/primary-microplastics-oceans

Also watch this Doc - most plastic pollution in the ocean is from fishing gear ...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14152756/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Arguments rage on social media accusing the producers of bias, but what else do you expect from Big Corporations when found to be Lying their Collective Derriere's off ...

20 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Cary a cloth bag and refuse the plastic bag.  Lots of people doing it all helping.

Exactly, being doing just that for years.

20 hours ago, Bill97 said:

Cary a cloth bag and refuse the plastic bag.  Lots of people doing it all helping.

I CARRY one all the time.

Come on mods, put an S in the title please!

Our supply of plastic carrier bags stuffed in a holder under the sink has definitely diminished since the supermarkets required patrons to bring their own reusable bags.  We barely have enough for kitchen parings and coffee grounds with none for used kitty litter.  We have buy plastic bags for the used kitty litter rather than triple bagging it in supermarket carrier bags.  So much for saving the environment.

Read this thread and then minutes later saw this on Reddit:

 

LINK: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/mpm6w0/oc_where_every_plastic_ever_made_ended_up/

 

Just proves the Thais did as the Farangs have gone home!

With Covid more bags are used takeaway etc 

Many of these plastic bags with names clear ones coming from the Thai markets where majority of the Thais in general go to get their food!  You stop that and then you might see a difference! 

 Unfortunately I’m not familiar what the school teaches on environment and everyone doing their part to earth clean..

 

It should be taught... I won’t comment about things I’ve tried

to teach the in-laws.. 

 

but keep tryung..

The plastic bag litter problem is far better than it was 10 years ago. In our village there used to be at least one bag every metre of the edge of the road. Now sometimes only one every 5 metres!

 

The 2 biggest problems are the numerous small bags used for takeaway food and soi dogs emptying rubbish bins. Education takes time. Wife and family now do use reusable bags for shopping but did take about a year for them to remember to do so .....