3 de julio: Día Libre de Bolsas plásticas y 3 acciones que realizamos desde Preservando

Rezero, a member of Zero Waste Europe (ZWE), launched Plastic Bag Free Day on July 3, 2008, a global initiative that aims to eliminate the use of single-use plastic bags in the world. 

Now we will detail the statistics published by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Zero West Europe (ZWE) Y surfrider What do we consider most impressive?

  1. Plastic bags were first introduced in 1965 and on average are used for 25 minutes and 1 million plastic bags are used worldwide every minute.
  2. If the world does not completely stop production, in 30 years the weight of the plastic bags thrown into the seas and oceans will exceed that of all the creatures that live in them.
  3. A plastic bag takes between 100 and 500 years to disintegrate (depending on the type of plastic).
  4. The 80% of marine litter is plastic and every year 3.4 million tonnes of plastic bags are produced in the EU alone (corresponds to the weight of more than two million cars).
  5. In most cases, plastic bags end up in sewers, beaches, rivers and seas, causing unhealthy and polluting situations.
  6. 5000 trillion pieces of plastic waste float in the ocean and are the origin of the “plastic continents” around the world, including the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is 3.43 million square kilometers wide.

The figures are alarming, but both citizens and the government can take responsibility and reduce their consumption, as is the case in Ireland, the first country to introduce a tax on plastic bags in 2002 (€0.15 and then €0. €22) generating a decrease in its consumption of 90%. 

In our country, Peru, there is Law 30884, which regulates single-use plastic and disposable containers or packaging. In addition, this law prohibits the consumption of those plastic products that are unnecessary, that is, those that cannot be recycled or that represent a risk to public health and/or the environment. 

During the COVID-19 health crisis, the use of plastics increased as an extreme precaution to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. However, we cannot go back in this fight and the use of reusable bags continues to be a better alternative, since a study involving the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, Princeton University, University of California, among others, found that the virus lasts longer on polypropylene plastic and stainless steel surfaces (up to three days), than on copper and cardboard surfaces (approximately four and 24 hours).

Since "Preservando", our socio-environmental project focused on mountain ecosystems, we have been carrying out three actions to promote the reduction of the use of single-use plastic bags and that we seek to spread to our mountain companions.

#1: Use of organizers to replace single-use bags, to carry our clothing and mountain equipment inside the backpack. 

Own source. Photo taken in Yuracmayo – Peru

#2: Use of cloth bags for climbing equipment that is used both in climbing gyms and rocky areas in the mountains.

Own source. Cloth bags to store climbing equipment such as jacks, magnesera and magnesium

#3: Reuse of clothes to turn them into cloth bags that we use on trips to the mountains. For this initiative we rely on my father, who knows how to sew on a machine, and gives a second life to fabrics that are no longer used.

Own source. Before being a cloth bag, it was a dress

Sources:

If you have more ideas to avoid single-use plastic bags in the mountains, Felipe and I (Co-Founders of "Preservando") we will be attentive to read them in the comments.

Leave a comment