It's not just WASTE

Our world is living a new crisis, an environmental one. Plastic bags have contributed to contaminate our natural resources carrying with them consequences that affect out biodiversity, human health and our natural resources, along also with gas emissions that contribute to the Greenhouse effect.

Politicians have tried to give this problem a solution, but in order for that to happen we will have to wait until January 2012. In our country we see two major issues: people are still not conscious enough to care about the environment, and secondly there are still no laws that ban the unlimited use of non degradable plastic bags. So the problem basically relies in our country’s government and people.

Ana Lia Uriarte, our Minister of Environment, commented “in Chile there is no recycling culture, and the trash collector companies are not funded by the government, therefore they don’t have an obligation to demand to the people to divide their wastes. Besides we do not have specialized dumpsters”. The tendencies today show that companies (Jumbo, Líder, Falabella, among other) sand some people (designers and people who recycle materials) care about the environment, but they represent a small percentage of our population.

This small group of people is being supported by larger companies, and the trend today is that people start not only recycling, but more importantly giving a different use to plastic bags or, even better, using an alternative product environment friendly. The Minister of Environment also mentioned that “our ecosystem is being affected by residuals and mainly by plastic bags”.

On the other hand, powerful companies are looking the situation through a different perspective, Josefina Correa, Chief Executive of Líder stated that “people still prefer plastic bags because they are comfortable, and also they believe they are easy to get rid of, neglecting the effects they cause on the environment”. She also mentioned that even after the supermarket chain tried to impose a new trend of reusable bags, people didn’t seem to be friendly with the idea.

The use of bio friendly bags is a main concern today for the Ministry of Environment, still the options are not clear enough and there are way too many, from substitute materials to different packaging alternatives such as boxes, containers, among others. Some people have given a creative solution to the “waste” that comes from plastic bags, creating products that start from designer decoration objects to high fashion boots and handbags.

Clearly the ban of plastic bags is not necessary, what we need is to use them and get rid of them consciously. Supermarkets and shops in Chile have to limit their use of plastic bags, people -consumers- on the other hand have to look forward to a responsible and eco friendly use of them among with imposing a recycle friendly culture in Chile in which materials such as plastic do not become a source of waste.