Bhutan and Plastic Bags

Due to economic growth and changes in consumption patterns, worldwide plastic waste is rapidly increasing. According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) (2009), today's worldwide plastic consumption has increased from 5 million tons in the 1950s to 100 million tons. According to the Natural Resource Protection Council (NRDC) (2008), Americans use 100 billion vinyl shopping bags each year to process and generate large amounts of waste. Likewise, in Australia, 92 billion plastic bags and about 76 billion bags (20,700 tons) are used annually for landfill disposal (cleaning days).

Plastic bags are the main visible sign of pollution worldwide. In fact, this is a rare opportunity to identify a road, waterway or waterfront without having some plastic bags scattered. Creating each new package means slight damage to the environment everyday. Bhutan for the first time banned the use of plastic bags in 1999. - Due to economic growth and changes in consumption patterns, worldwide plastic waste is increasing rapidly. According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) (2009), today's worldwide plastic consumption has increased from 5 million tons in the 1950s to 100 million tons. According to the Natural Resource Protection Council (NRDC) (2008), Americans use 100 billion vinyl shopping bags each year to process and generate large amounts of waste.

Bhutan also banned plastic bags nationwide. However, due to the utility of lightweight airtight storage and the lack of viable alternatives, the prohibition of the use of plastic bags has proved to be a serious challenge from the implementation and implementation standpoint. People were forced to buy cotton bags and fined people who violated the rules. Everywhere in Bhutan, reliance on firewood as a fuel source was historically common. Prior to the emergence of hydropower and other modern energy sources, almost all fuel sources for heating, cooking and lighting were firewood. Supply of electricity and strengthening monitoring of firewood charcoal collectors and more active forest regeneration projects are regarded as an important element of forest conservation

Habitat destruction, fossil fuel emissions, plastic contamination is part of a way that can not distinguish between plastic bags and climate change. An estimated 12 million barrels of petroleum is used to make 30 million plastic bags that Americans use each year. This is equivalent to the amount of oil in our strategic oil reserves. When used in a bag, it is a wasteful and unnecessary way to exhaust our oil supply and cause the accumulation of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. But our plastic accumulation in the ocean is a major cause of ecosystem damage. It is estimated that 100,000 marine animals are killed each year by asphyxiation or ingestion. When thinking that a broken bag breaks down finely to our waterway, this number looks small. These small pieces of plastic accumulate in our ocean with amazing speed.