BAGS, BAGS, AND MORE BAGS!

OK! I know they're just bags but they are still important. We use them every day whether it's the black bag in our bin or round our sandwiches or just for some left-overs to pop in the fridge. Plastic is everywhere.  In some cases I'm actually being literal here! This is what it's like in some areas of the world.

Yes! That's our left over junk most of which we thought we'd put safely in the bin. Some gets carried away by the wind on rubbish day or off tips and ends up in rivers and then on into the sea. Some of it is off ships or just the 'odd' plastic bottle chucked over the side of ferries etc. It all mounts up and now there are huge areas in the sea called gyres which contain more plastic bits than sea life! Scary.  Read about the Gyres here

This is an island in Hawaii (Kamilo Island) where there is more plastic than sand in the top foot of the beach! And there are thousands of such beaches.

Unfortunately that's not the only problem. The plastic in the sea breaks down into tiny pieces called nurdles and these plastic nurdles kill more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and even toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which have mistaken them for food.

It's not good for our health either because these millions and millions of nurdles as they work their way into the sea act like chemical sponges, attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and pesticides. They are then entering the food chain. Fish and small top feeders eat them and so it ends up on our plate.    

Wikaniko provides us with a very reasonably priced option - degradable bags.  They have them all, from the huge wheelie bin liners to the little sandwich bags and even doggie poo bags and they are all 100% degradable. If you cost them out with your usual ones you'll get a surprise. Like for like they are, in nearly all cases cheaper then the supermarket and 100% less harmful.  Better to degrade safely than end up here....

When a carrier bag floats in the sea unfortunately it looks very like a jellyfish from below and there are a lot of turtles making this deadly mistake.

While this won't stop the pollution of the sea in any big way it is a start. Putting pressure on supermarkets to stop handing out billions of carrier bags every year will  make a bigger difference and choosing to reuse what bags we have as much as we can will help a little more.  Little steps to making a big difference.

Wikaniko even supply a little bag to keep your own plastic bags in. It fits neatly into your handbag  (I attach it to the zip inside so I can find it easily) and you can just fill it with about 10-12 bags. I use the doggy poo bags actually because they have handles and I use them for my loose fruit and veg in the supermarket.

Here again is the price comparison I did in August. Not much has changed.

TESCO		WIKANIKO
PLASTIC BAGS Tesco Compostable sacks 25s Tesco swing bin liners 30s Tesco Standard tie top refuse bag 20s Tesco tie handle freezer bags med 45s Tesco tie handle freezer bags large 25s	£2.75 £2.45 £2.10 £1.40 £1.40	20 x 5L bags 15s 20s 200 100	£2.80 £1.79 £1.79 £1.79 £1.79