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Reducing plastic pollution on Bougainville

The Bougainville Bureau for the Environment (BBE) is hoping to reduce the amount of single use plastic bags in circulation on Bougainville. In order to achieve this goal, the BBE and the Bougainville Women’s Federation (BWF) are requesting that all major businesses and consumers try and cut down on single use plastic bags. The efforts to turn the tide on plastic bags will be part of a wider awareness campaign of the dangers that plastic pollution poses to both the environment and communities in Bougainville. To launch the campaign the BBE and the BWF will be hosting and educational awareness and cleanathon event at Buka market on Wednesday, August 16th. This year’s theme will be Lukautim Bougainville: Yumi Rausim Plastic.

The Bougainville Bureau for the Environment and BWF want everybody’s help in reducing single-use plastic bags because of the harmful effects they can have on health and wellbeing. Much of what we eat, drink or use comes packaged in plastic. This commonplace material is made from petroleum and designed to last forever. Yet it is usually used only once before being thrown away. This contributes to roughly 3.5 billion tonnes of waste annually.

“Currently, only 5% of single-use plastics disposed of are recycled. Roughly 50% is buried in landfills, a small proportion is made into durable goods, and the remaining is “unaccounted for” - lost in the environment where it ultimately wastes out to sea through drains and waterways. In the ocean, sunlight and wave action causes the plastic to fragment into smaller and smaller pieces, which results in all kinds of hazards for our marine life,” says Astra Rushton, a community conservation officer at the BBE.

She explains that the presence of plastic in the marine food web presents a huge problem, not only for the animals and ocean ecosystems, but for us. This is because much of the seafood that ends up on our plates is likely to have consumed plastic and what they eat, we ultimately eat, too. This can have all sorts of implications for our health.

If you want to help keep Bougainville clean, healthy and beautiful you can support the BBE by looking for sustainable solutions to plastic pollution and put an end to dependence on single-use plastic bags. This can be done by bringing your own cloth bag when shopping, saying no to single-use plastic bags and avoiding burning plastic in rubbish fires.

For more information visit the Bougainville Bureau for the Environment’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Bougainville-Bureau-For-The-Environment-804381966390326/

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