As an unashamed fan I was delighted to be asked to defend the unmerited ‘bad rep’ that plastics seem to have earned. No doubt what I say will challenge what most people believe – including the editorial team at Resource. Indeed, some of the facts are counterintuitive, but misinformation abounds, fuelled by media coverage that demonises plastic bags, portraying them as a serious threat to the environment.

Modern, lightweight plastic is often the first choice for packaging because it offers unrivalled protection for minimal weight. For example, a typical polythene bag used for food packaging is capable of carrying up to 2,500 times its own weight. Not only does plastic meet the most stringent food safety hygiene requirements, but no other material can match the savings that modern lightweight packaging delivers in fuel and CO2 emissions throughout the supply chain.

Although highly visible, polythene bags are not a major component of litter or domestic waste; in fact, many studies prove that they represent less than one per cent of all litter. And in landfill, plastic films of all types make up just three per cent of the waste.

Plastic packaging helps reduce waste, particularly food waste. In countries that do not have our sophisticated packaging and distribution systems around 50 per cent of food is wasted from harvest to table. In the UK this figure is around three per cent, so packaging is helping to minimise waste miles.

Polythene carrier bags are integral to the distribution chain – both for hygienic containment and protection, facilitating delivery to the point of consumption with minimum waste through spills and breakages.

Polythene refuse sacks are commonly used for the safe containment, collection and disposal of domestic, healthcare and other hazardous wastes. Since their introduction over 40 years ago, they have played a vital role in the virtual elimination of waste-related public health outbreaks in the UK.

The manufacture of plastic packaging films uses one-third of the energy, and results in half the pollution and one-eighth of the raw material requirement of paper production.

Bags for life use more raw materials in their construction and are bulkier and heavier to transport. That’s okay providing they are used and reused at least four times, but the onus on reuse is with the consumer and research has shown that this does not always happen. Unless they are made of recyclable plastic and recycled themselves, it is likely that they, too, will ultimately be thrown away, to take up more space in landfill.

Taxing or banning plastic bags?

According to a 2007 Packaging and Films Association analysis of HM Customs statistics by Mike Kidwell Associates, the use of plastic bags in Ireland (including substitute bin liners) shows that the volume of imported bags increased after the introduction of their bag tax – from 29,846 tonnes in 2001 to 31,649 tonnes in 2006. WRAP Chief Executive, Liz Goodwin, also acknowledged this, saying “We have got to remember that taxes and levies can have perverse effects – such as making people use more plastic not less.”

Taxing plastic bags would send more paper to landfill – assuming a switch to paper, as happened in Ireland – where it will degrade to give off greenhouse gases in direct contravention of the EU Landfill Directive. By contrast, plastic remains inert in landfill. Research by the Carrier Bag Consortium revealed that the planned tax-saving switch to paper bags by eight high street fashion retailers in Ireland resulted in at least four times the weight of paper waste eventually confined to landfill compared with plastic.

In an August 2006 interview on BBC Radio 4, the then environment minister, Ben Bradshaw, stated: “There have been unforeseen consequences in the Irish Experience… a big increase in the use of paper bags, which are actually worse for the environment.”

No one can claim that bags in hedgerows or in the oceans are not an issue, but this is litter – a result of anti-social behaviour – not the ‘environmental disaster’ that some people claim.

There is much to be said for the well-intended efforts of environmentalists to reduce our impact on the planet, but it is important to understand that bans or taxes can bring about unintended consequences that may actually be worse for the environment.

Would using more plastic be good for the environment? Unquestionably. Modern, lightweight plastics are already delivering fuel and CO2 savings throughout the production and supply chain and plastic fits well into the accepted reduce, reuse, recycle hierarchy.

So, the much-maligned plastic bag may well have become the icon of consumerism – although certainly not self-styled. Intelligent consumers should, however, consider the wider issues and not allow plastic to become a scapegoat for their environmental conscience.

Fantastic Plastic

• Plastic shopping bags comprise only 0.05 per cent of landfill
• One trip to the supermarket on average has the same environmental impact as one person’s entire annual consumption of carrier bags
• Plastic shopping bags use 70 per cent less material today than they did 20 years ago

59 per cent of people reuse ALL their lightweight plastic bags and a FURTHER 16 per cent say they reuse MOST of them