Plastic soup: one bag at a time
Worldwide, more than a billion disposable plastic bags are used each year. It is unclear where these bags end up. Only 1% of them are recycled in Europe, and there is increasing evidence that the large majority end up in the natural environment. Although this problem is receiving increased attention, data for the Netherlands and the rest of Europe is scarce.
Free plastic bags were banned in the Netherlands in 2016. What has been the impact of this? Industrial ecologist Dr Stefana Cucurachi has received a grant from the LUF-SVM Fund (in Dutch) to answer this question. His ‘One bag at a time’ project is the first time that the environmental effects of this intervention are being investigated.
‘Turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, their natural prey, and this causes problems.’
Follow the plastic
Dr Cucurachi will map out the lifecycle of plastic bags. How many bags are sold and where do they come from? How many end up at a waste incineration plant, in a recycling stream or in our oceans? He thus wants to make the effects of environmental policy measurable and determine what goes wrong in the waste management system.
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