Carrefour lead Tenerife bag ban
November 14, 2009 – 3:29 pm
One of the biggest supermarket chains in Tenerife, Carrefour have banned plastic carrier bags, the first store to do so on the island. Saturday 14 November was the last day the old bags were being issued.
Some 75,000 re-usable bags have been issued to customers for continued use, they can be used up to 15 times and even then, they can be re-cycled after they are worn out. The old style carrier bags can take up to 400 years to bio degrade.
One Comment
I am very concerned about the pollution of our oceans and environment with plastic which is not biodegradeable and is killing millions of marine animals and seabirds such as turtles and albatrosses. Plastic particles are being eaten by plankton-feeders and in some places plastic particles actually outnumber plankton by six tiny bits of plastic to one of natural plankton. Plastic has entered the food chain and is a threat to humans too because plastics carry other dangerous toxins that have been absorbed by the material.
As I write these comments, David de Rothschild has just set sail across the Pacific on a catamaran made of recycled plastic bottles called the Plastiki. The Plastiki Expedition will be passing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and aims to raise awareness of the danger of pollution by plastic as well as the need for recycling.
I am personally in touch with David and am running a fansite for him at Facebook. I am looking into the situation with regards to rubbish disposal and recycling in the Canary Islands and am pleased to read that Carrefour are showing the way forward with their ban.