What is it with Plastic bag fish ?

Yesterday I went for a windsurf at Middle Harbour. Ok you may think that is pretty boring but in the space of an hour I reckon I caught about 5 plastic bags on my centre board. They were all washing out on the tide and were every where.
In the end I was so disgusted that I stopped sailing and went around picking up plastic. Every thing from bottle tops and plastic drink containers to straws and plastic bags, most stuff floating just below the water.
While I was doing this a guy was trying to catch a pelican that was wrapped up in fish hooks and line. He reckons the bird will most likely die as the line never breaks down.
What does the government and manufacturers not get about plastic at least make it Bio degradable. What do the greater peasantry not understand about dropping plastic crap on the ground. It always winds up in a water way somewhere. If only it was there backyard pool they might think twice or do something about it.
I already had to take issue with some fishos the other week, who right in front of me as i sailed past, just threw a couple of bait and ice bags overboard into the water. My language was not very choice but they got the message and circled around and picked up their rubbish. Though they probably just dropped it further out in the harbour.
Do we want to become like some areas in China and Indonesia where the rubbish is just dumped in the rivers to drift out to sea, choking the fish and bird life and making it really filthy in the water for other users.
So if you ever catch a plastic bag fish on your centre board, remember that some lazy bugger threw it away instead of at least putting it in the bin.
End of rant. Any ideas ?

Well done on speaking up to those who know no better, and cleaning up around the foreshore too. Me myself have been impressed by how little rubbish there is on the beaches up north and around seaside towns. People are getting the message slowly, if not all the 5,000 000 people in Sydney. As for bio plastic! Well it could make people think it is ok to throw it away when its not.

thanks for the support guys
i grew up on the banks of the Swan river in the 60s 70s near point walter it was an amazing place to be a kid. I am a bit disappointed now when i take my kids back there to show them where their old man grew up. It is probably only that in my memory it was pristine. i also grew up opposite a tip that was used to reclaim the sports field in applecross. That thing was a kids paradise for junk but imagine what is leaching out of that these days into the river.
When I was in Tassie a couple of weeks ago the super markets all charged for plastic bags and just about every body had there own shopping bags with them. i actually felt a bit embarrassed that i had to buy a bag, stupid Sydney person.
this should be compulsory all around australia, the only way to change most peoples behaviour is by hitting them in the Hip pocket nerve.
Any way sail on

hugo

As windsurfers we should make sure to take with us the electrical tape we use to seal the mast joint. In a popular rigging area I was saddened to find at least a dozen discarded lengths, no use to criticize others if we cannot do the right thing ourselves

A couple of things that annoy me is the fact that nearly every plastic/glass bottle up here in QLD has a "10c Refund at Collection Depots at SA/NT State Territory of Purchase" style tagging on them. Problem is that it is for SA and NT only. If they went this way up here in QLD it would clean up the streets big time. I traveled to VIC at the start of the year to find that most of the streets were so pristine clean. Not that way up here at all.

Second big hate is the lazy sods who leave their rubbish on tables at the local shops. when there is a bin right next to them. It makes it hard to find a clean table when you have two kids. The cleaners are not there to pick up rubbish after filthy pigs. They are there to wipe tables clean as quick as they can to allow reuse.

My Rant Over.

Here the most stupid answer in the world when I ask Coles why they were still polluting with free plastic bags:
Dear Mr Savina

Thank you for your email regarding the use of plastic bags at Coles.

Coles takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously and is committed to reducing consumer reliance on single use plastic bags.

Coles does not support a ban on plastic bags in all states of Australia because our customers have told us they would like the opportunity to make an informed choice. However, we are committed to encouraging our customers to use reusable bags when shopping in our stores.

We now offer a range of reusable bags for sale in prominent locations in our stores. These include:

- Reusable plastic bags $0.15 cents
- Polypropylene bags $1
- Non-woven Polypropylene bags $2
- Chiller bags $2.50
- Juco bags $3
- Other seasons and promotional bags.

We proudly donate five cents from the sale of each Landcare bag to Landcare for funding school and community gardens.

We also provide recycling bins in all of our stores in (state) to receive plastic bags that are returned by customers.

In some states, we have extended our in store recycling program to include flexible soft plastic recycling (e.g. biscuit packs, confectionery, shopping bags, rice and pasta bags, produce bags, frozen food bags and old reusable bags).

We recognise that our customers have different views about plastic bags and by offering our customers choice we believe we are respecting all customer views.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. We hope the above information has clearly explained our position and demonstrates that we are committed to plastic bag usage reduction and to recycling in our stores.

Regards

Troy Agostino
CUSTOMER CARE CONTACT CENTRE

Yep, this why they replied me that:

"Coles does not support a ban on plastic bags in all states of Australia because our customers have told us they would like the opportunity to make an informed choice."

When I told them plastic bags had been banned in French supermarket...

I didn't bother sending an email to Woolworth, they for sure as bad As Coles.

Nice work guys it is good to see this is something that windsurfers care about. What states or territories actually have banned plastic throwaway bags ?

I drove to the Flinders ranges last year and it was noticeable that as you went in to S.A that the road side rubbish was way less than in NSW, I guess because they have a refund policy on bottles and cans. Bloody good idea.
Is there such a person as a bottle collector we used to call them Bottleo's any more , they would come around and collect bottles and pay you for them.

Out near broken hill there is a bottle tree with hundreds of empty bottles stuck on it, you would not collect enough throw away bottle to make this public art in S.A

Any way keep up the anger !

picture of the Plastic bottle tree on the way to Broken Hill. At least it is one use for Plastic bottles.