SINGLE-USE plastic bags would be banned under a Surf Coast campaign to have the State Government outlaw them.
Led by Cr Eve Fisher, Surf Coast shire councillors have voted to “strongly advocate” to Spring Street for the bags to be prohibited.
“It’s time our policy-makers started thinking about the planet first,” Cr Fisher told the Independent.
“Plastic has become a blight on our society and we need to do something to fix it.
“It’s a case of we know the legislation is ready and waiting to be enacted but we really need people to do it to protect our marine environment and get people thinking about the issue of plastics generally.
“I heard this really horrible statistic, do you realise every piece of plastic you ever touched in your life is still on the planet? That’s a pretty harsh reality.”
Cr Fisher told the shire council single-use plastic bags represented largely unnecessary resource consumption. Plastic litter was toxic to aquatic and other wildlife, she said.
“By eliminating them and switching to reusable bags we can cut shopping bag use dramatically from around 3.7 billion a year across Australia and reduce the risks of harm to the environment,” she said.
“Bans and pricing signals can play an important role in this.”
While the EPA Act was amended in 2006 to allow for single-bag bans no regulations had yet been enacted to bring it into action, Cr Fisher said.
__ NOEL MURPHY
