International Plastic Bag Free Day: History and significance of the occasion

Started by Zero Waste Europe, International Plastic Bag Free Day is observed globally on 3 July. The purpose of observing this day is to raise awareness against the use of this often non-biodegradable material which causes harm to our environment. The organisation aims to eliminate single-use plastics from our daily use. According to Zero Waste Europe, (ZWE) it was found that as many as 92 percent of the total 95.5 billion carrier bags in 2010 were single-use in the EU.

International Plastic Bag Free Day History

The day was started in 2008 by a member of ZWE, Rezero. In the first year of its inception, the day was marked only in Catalonia. A year later, ZWE launched the International Plastic Bag Free Day in the European Union. Their campaign developed over the years and the organisation was able to push several countries to take measures to reduce the use of single-use plastic.

International Plastic Bag Free Day Significance

In a blog on the ZWE website by its Executive Director Joan Marc Simon said that the measures taken by the organisation have given them significant results. The plastic bags directive was enacted in 2015 by the EU. The aim of this directive was to take measures which could reduce the plastic consumption per person to 90 bags by 2018. It plans to bring down the consumption further down to 40 plastic bags per person for 2025.

New measure to reduce plastic consumption in India

In order to cut down on the use of plastic water bottles, water boxes have been created by Suneeth Tatineni and Chaitanya Ayinapudi from Hyderabad. With the help of these water boxes, they aim to eliminate the use of plastic water bottles by 85 percent. The water boxes and bags used by them are eco-friendly and can be recycled.