Mark Dawson: Plastic far from fantastic for planet

Fly-tipping at the Waingawa River off Hughes Line, Carterton. Plastic bags of household rubbish. WAG 30Jan15 - FILTH: (Above) Discarded bags of rubbish beside the Waingawa River. WGP 16A

PLASTIC WAS invented in 1856 in Birmingham, a murky, industrialised city in the middle of England.

Since then, it has done pretty well for itself. Plastic is everywhere, it is in everything ... it makes the world go round.

Plastic is noted for its toughness and durability - but that's a double-edged sword.

While it wears well and is extremely useful during its working life, it tends to hang around an awful long time once past its use-by date.

In fact, plastic can take hundreds of years to break down and we now find tonnes and tonnes of the stuff clogging up parts of the world, from landfills to oceans.

Such global issues can be intimidating and leave one feeling helpless in the face of an onslaught of plasticity. However, we can all do a little to turn back the tide - stop using the plastic shopping bags so beloved of our supermarkets.

Take a re-useable - preferably cloth - shopping bag or bags and stick your groceries in there. As well as helping the environment, there is the added bonus that it won't split open, spilling goodies everywhere, just before you reach the car door.

Last year, a Chronicle reader reported on the "beautiful" town of Llangollen in Wales which had become plastic bag-free, largely by distributing jute bags to households.

If the Welsh can do it, why can't we?

Well ... dare to dream. A national campaign to reduce the use of once-only plastic bags comes to Wanganui next month in the form of Green MP Denise Roche.

She will speak on this very topic on Friday, June 5, from 6pm at the Quaker Rooms at 256 Wicksteed St. Let's hope for a good turnout.