Eco Green Travel

Research: Tesco bags don’t fully degrade

The ‘degradable’ plastic bags handed out in their millions by Tesco are more harmful than those they have replaced, a Government study has found.

The carrier bags, which are designed to break down within three years, leave behind tiny plastic particles that could harm birds, insects and mammals.

The report also warned the bags can litter the countryside for up to five years before they degrade, far longer than the supermarket claims.

This is because they need to be exposed to heat and sunlight for them to break down.

And unlike ordinary bags, they cannot be composted or recycled.

The report will be a major blow to Tesco, which hands out around 500million of the ’100 per cent degradable’ bags a year.

In fact the carriers are ‘oxodegradable’, which means they break down into a fine dust after coming into prolonged contact with sunlight or heat.

Conventional bags do fully disintegrate, but the process takes hundreds of years. Oxodegradable bags contain additives that speed up the chemical breakdown of plastic.

They are different from biodegradable bags made from corn starch, which are broken down by bacteria in compost heaps.

Yesterday Environment Minister Dan Morris said: ‘Consumers risk being confused by some claims made about oxodegradable plastics.

‘As these plastics cannot be composted, the term "biodegradable" can cause confusion.

‘Incorrect disposal of oxodegradable plastics has the potential to negatively affect both recycling and composting facilities.’

He added: ‘We hope this research will discourage manufacturers and retailers from claiming that these materials are better for the environment than conventional plastics.’

The Daily Mail’s Banish the Bags campaign led to a cut in the number of single-use carrier bags handed out by retailers

The report follows the Daily Mail’s successful Banish the Bag campaign, which led to a cut in the number of wasteful single-use carrier bags handed out by retailers. However some 5.5billion are still handed out each year.

The latest report, from Loughborough University, pulled together all the published research into degradable bags to conclude that bags like the ones Tesco are using could do more harm than good.

Degradable plastic can take five years to break down and does not meet Europe’s composting standards, it said.

The bags may even stay intact if they are buried in landfill away from heat and light, the report said.

And if the bag does break down, the tiny fragments of plastic might also do harm to the environment, it added.

‘Although these are regarded as beneficial by the producers, concerns have been raised that these particles of plastic may be ingested by invertebrates, birds, animals or fish,’ the report said.

No evidence was found that these fragments cause harm, ‘but neither was there evidence that they do not’, the authors added.

Tesco claims its bags break down within 20 to 36 months, leaving nothing harmful behind.

A spokesman for Tesco said: ‘We welcome this report as a contribution to the debate on bags.

‘Tesco has pushed hard to reduce the environmental impact of carrier bags and as the science evolves we’ll study the new findings.’

Source By David Derbyshire
www.dailymail.co.uk/…/Tescos-green-bags-WORSE-environment.html

Conservationists have warned that the Malaysian appetite for turtle eggs could lead to the creatures’ extinction.

According to a Channel NewsAsia report, turtles once arrived in their thousands to lay eggs on Malaysian beaches, but are now increasingly rare due to poaching

and coastal development. A report commissioned by WWF Malaysia showed that the market demand for turtle eggs

exceeded supply. It estimated that 422,000 eggs were traded in the northeastern state of Terengganu alone in

2007, more than twice the number of green turtle eggs laid in the state.

Source:traveldailymedia.com

Boeing has prepared a new 737-800 jet with the first ever application of a chrome-free primer used on single-aisle plane

bound for commercial service. A chrome free primer reduces the environmental impact of the paint and stripping process,

eliminating the need for designated offsite disposal areas. Such advantages also are of benefi t when the airplane is

prepared for repainting. The new plane will be delivered to Brazilian carrier, GOL, though Boeing intends to make it

a standard option in the future.

Source: traveldailyasia

Plans for a new coal-fired power station in Scotland have been met by controversy. According to The Guardian,

climate activists say that if the proposed 1.6GW station in Ayrshire is approved it will be environmentally disastrous.

Juliet Swann, of FoE Scotland, said many local residents and environment groups would protest against the

scheme. It would increase the UK’s use of coal, and, at first, use untested carbon capture and storage technology

to tackle only a quarter of its CO2 emissions. She told The Guardian: "Carbon capture and storage is potentially

a way to reach a low-carbon future. But it should be demonstrated on existing plants fi rst, not least so we can

share the technology with the rest of the world, and in doing so repay our debt to them for supplying us with so

much of our dirty energy."

Source: www.traveldaily.co.uk

An audit of England’s wildlife has revealed that nearly 500 species of animals and plants have vanished in the past 200

years, The Times reported. The disappearances have been blamed on human activity such as hunting, fishing, loss of

habitat to farming and climate change. “Extinction rates are very high and it’s predominantly down to changes in

land use,” said University of Oxford Professor Kathy Willis.

Source www.traveldaily.co.uk

Hanoi is getting tough on people who dump waste

or litter the streets. Thanh Nien News reported that

the city’s authorities will impose fi nes of up to VND15

million (US$778) for illegal waste dumping, while

residents will be fi ned VND100,000-300,000 ($5.20-

15.50) for dumping household waste in unapproved

areas. The highest fi ne will be imposed on people

transporting solid waste to dump in unauthorised

places.

Three Indonesian mountains may soon be classified

by UNESCO as part of its Global Network of National

Geoparks. The Jakarta Post reported that Lombok’s

Mount Rinjani, Bali’s Mount Batur, and Mount Sewu in

East Java, have all had their nominations to the scheme

accepted. A formal application will follow, detailing

the mountains’ geology, economic situation, natural

features and human activities. A UNESCO assessment

team will arrive in April to inspect the mountains, the

report added. Currently, Southeast Asia only has one

UNESCO-listed Geopark, on Malaysia’s Langkawi Island.

Two people were killed in Can Tho, in Vietnam’s

Mekong Delta, on Saturday after erosion toppled three

houses into a river. The incident occurred when soil and

rock tumbled into the river at the under-construction

Tra Nien Bridge. An offi cial from Can Tho Department

of Transport was reported saying that the bridge may

have been too heavy to be supported by the weak river

bank. It is not the fi rst time communities have suffered

from erosion in the area; in 2007 13 houses collapsed

into the same river.

A vast iceberg that broke off the eastern Antarctic coast

earlier this month could disrupt marine life in the region,

the BBC has reported. The iceberg, which at 3,000km²

is more than three times the size of Singapore, was

separated from the Mertz Glacier Tongue after it was hit

by another huge iceberg. Now scientists believe that the

change in the availability of open water could impact on

the amount of wildlife it could sustain.

“We have got two massive icebergs that – end to end

- create a fence of about 180km,” Dr Neal Young from

the Australia-based Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems

Co-operative Research Centre, told the BBC. “So the

area’s geography has changed from a situation where

we effectively had a box in which two sides were open

ocean.”

This could affect algae growth, leading to the disruption

of the area’s entire food chain, he added. Source http://www.traveldailymedia.com/newsletters/03Mar10.pdf