Plastic bags can take between 400-1,000 years to break down, and like all forms of plastic they do not biodegrade. Instead they photo degrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits that contaminate soil, waterways and oceans, entering the food chain when ingested by animals.

Many plastic bags end up as waste on our beaches, streets and parks. When a plastic bag enters the ocean it becomes a harmful piece of litter. Many marine animals mistake plastic bags for food and swallow them, with painful and often fatal consequences. Nearly 90% of floating marine litter is plastic.

Darren and I were recently lucky enough to visit an idyllic ‘paradise island’  in Malaysia and unfortuantely the pollution out there was quite astonishing. We saw plastic bags floating by and at first thought they were jelly fish. It’s easy to understand why turtles end up eating so much plastic, mistaking it for lunch!

Sub-Mission Dive Centre customers are being asked to join in the fight and go ‘Plastic Bag Free’ for 1 week. This small step may not seem like it will make a big difference but collectively we are anticipating a significant response that will send a clear message to everyone.

Do you want to get involved? Well, here’s how you can do your bit…

Come into the Dive Centre on Saturday 21st May to register your participation. You’ll be given a ‘bag for life’ to use throughout the week to replace any plastic bags that you may ordinarily pick up. During the week, we’d like you to keep us updated with photos of yourself with your ‘bags for life’.

At the end of the week you’ll need to pop back into the Dive Centre to ‘confess your plastic bag sins’ for the week and pay a small donation to Project AWARE per plastic bag sin. Obviously, we want the donations to Project AWARE to be as little as possible (on this occasion) but to congratulate and recognise your efforts we’ll add the best photo’s to the website with your profile on too.    

Get involved and contact Katy.