Helen Clark joins Sam Neill, Jane Goodall in campaign urging nationwide ban on plastic bags

Monday, 26 February 2018

Sam Neill has never been afraid to champion a cause or speak his mind.

Former prime minister Helen Clark and actor Sam Neill have added their influential voices to a petition calling on the Government to ban single-use plastic bags.

The pair, along with the world's pre-eminent primatologist Dr Jane Goodall, have joined the call that demands an end to the use of throwaway plastic shopping bags in New Zealand.

On Tuesday Greenpeace and the Jane Goodall Institute New Zealand (JGINZ) are expected to present a letter – along with a petition signed by more than 65,000 Kiwis – to Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage urging a regulatory ban on the bags. The letter highlights increasing concerns about the plague of plastic in the oceans and the impact it has on the environment.

Former PM Helen Clark has given her backing to a petition calling for the banning of single-use plastic bags.

In New Zealand there has been growing support for a plastic bag ban. Stuff ran the Bags Not campaign last year to address this very issue.

* Bags Not: Campaign which got NZ recycling

* New Zealand's single-use plastic bag problem

Sam Neill has also joined the Greenpeace campaign – showing his commitment to the cause by 'eating' one, as many turtles do.

* Christchurch City Council to reduce plastic bag use

* Bags Not: Full coverage of Stuff's campaign**

Renowned primatologist Dr Jane Goodall has given the cause her support.

The Greenpeace campaign has garnered support from some of the country's most powerful companies, councils and charities, including Countdown, Bunnings, the Iwi Collective Partnership, WWF NZ and Forest & Bird.

Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel has also given it her backing, along with her counterparts in Wellington, Nelson, Queenstown and Upper Hutt.

Kiwis used a staggering 1.6 billion single-use plastic bags every year – each is used for around 12 minutes.

The letter, also addressed to Climate Change Minister James Shaw, says single-use plastics have a 'devastating impact globally on animals, people and the environment'.

It suggests New Zealand has fallen 'well behind the rest of the world' in the move to eliminate single-use plastic bags and that while commitments to reduce waste production are encouraging, 'New Zealand's current position as the 10th worst nation for creating urban waste is indeed shameful'.

It says: 'As a vital step towards minimising and eliminating plastic waste and its impact on our environment and its inhabitants, we are calling on you and your Government to institute a regulatory ban on the current primary form of single-use plastic bags.'

In a supporting statement, Clark – a patron of JGINZ – said it was 'vital' for the Government to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices.

'The banning of single-use plastic bags from stores, communities, and the environment would be a big step in the right direction towards achieving the targets of sustainable development goals, a step where we are well behind many other countries which are enacting legislation,' she said.

'I hope that the New Zealand Government, supported by corporations, community-based organisations and many New Zealanders, will ban the bag.'

In a similar call to action Goodall, who is also a United Nations (UN) messenger of peace, said: 'Is the convenience (of plastic bags) really worth the impact on animals, people and the environment?

'People and countries around the world are saying no. Now it is time for New Zealand to say no also, and ban the bag.'

Kiwi actor Neill, star of Hunt For The Wilderpeople, Jurassic Park and The Piano, lent his talent to a tongue-in-cheek Greenpeace film praising 'the humble plastic bag', which has been viewed around 800,000 times since its launch last week.

The campaign is part of a global movement that is gathering pace to end the scourge of single-use plastic.

Governments around the world, including those of Rwanda, Senegal, China, Bangladesh and countries in western Europe, as well as American cities and numerous Australian states, are taking action to ban the sale of plastic bags.

Britain's Environment Secretary Michael Gove last week also suggested a ban on plastic straws and in January prime minister Theresa May said she wanted to eliminate all avoidable plastic within 25 years.

In 2008 hardware chain Bunnings removed such bags from its stores and Countdown and New World have committed to a similar move this year.

Christchurch City Council promised to drastically reduce its plastic bag use in 2017, vowing to reduce numbers at libraries and council-run events.

Dalziel backed a 'nationwide solution' to the issue, saying the best answer was a ban rather than charging for bags.

New Zealanders use 1.6 billion plastic bags each year, Greenpeace estimates – but each is used for an average of just 12 minutes before being thrown out.

Many end up in the oceans, contributing to eight million tonnes of plastic waste entering the seas every year, where they harm marine life such as turtles, which mistake bags for jellyfish.

Greenpeace campaigner Elena Di Palma said urgent action was needed to stop New Zealand's plastic waste problem spiralling further out of control.

'We really need to get single use plastic out of our lives.

'Plastic bottles, straws, plastic cutlery – all have a terrible impact on our environment and are deadly to the creatures we share the seas with.'

JGINZ chief executive Dr Melanie Vivian added: 'The consequences of our conveniences are now starkly obvious.

'To turn the impacts around behaviour change will need to come from us all, governments, businesses, communities and individuals.'

NEW ZEALAND'S PLASTIC HABIT

1.6 billion: Number of single-use plastic bags used by Kiwis every year.
12 minutes: Average amount of time each bag is used before being thrown out.
1000 years: How long it can take for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill site.
8.3 million: Tonnes of plastic bags that up in the oceans every year.
100,000: Estimated number of marine mammals plastic bags contribute to killing each year.
1 in 3: Turtles found dead on New Zealand's beaches that are found to have swallowed plastic.
65,000: Signatures on a petition demanding the Government bans single-use plastic bags.
2050: When the ocean will contain more plastic than fish by weight, under current trends.

Sources: Greenpeace and JGINZ