Getting rid of plastic bags

By Michael McCarthy

Plastic bags are one of the greatest problems of the consumer society - or to be more precise, of the throwaway society. First introduced in the United States in 1957, and into the rest of the world by the late 1960s, they have been found so convenient that they have come to be used in massive numbers. In the world as a whole, the annual total manufactured now probably exceeds a trillion - that is, one million billion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000.

According to a recent study, whereas plastic bags were rarely seen at sea in the late eighties and early nineties, they are now being found almost everywhere across the planet, from Spitsbergen in the Arctic to the South Atlantic close to Antarctica. They are among the 12 items of rubbish most often found in coastal clean-ups. [1] Windblown plastic bags are so common in Africa that a small industry has appeared: harvesting bags and using them to make hats and other items, with one group of people collecting 30,000 per month. In some developing countries they are a major nuisance in blocking the drainage systems of towns and villages.

What matters is what happens to them after use. Enormous numbers end up being buried or burnt, which is an enormous waste of the oil products which have gone into their manufacture.

[2] ­­­­­­­­_____ Turtles mistake them for their jellyfish food and choke on them; birds mistake them for fish with similar consequences; dolphins have been found with plastic bags preventing them breathing properly.

The wildlife film-maker Rebecca Hosking was shocked by the effects of the bags on birds on the Pacific island of Midway. She found that two-fifths of the 500,000 albatross chicks born each year die, the vast majority from swallowing plastic that their parents have mistakenly brought back as food. [3]_____ Many local residents and shopkeepers joined in, and the idea of getting rid of them completely soon spread to other towns and villages.

Although some people remain unconvinced, it does seem possible that the entire country could eventually become plastic-bag free. Who could have imagined half-a-century ago that our public places would one day all become cigarette-smoke free? Or that we would all be using lead-free petrol? Who would have thought even a decade ago, come to that, that about two-thirds of us would by now be actively involved in recycling? [4]________

What is needed is a general change in consumer attitudes, towards the habit of using re-usable shopping bags. Older people will remember how this used to be entirely normal as every household had a 'shopping bag', a strong bag which was used to carry items bought in the daily trip to the shops. [5] Today, many of us tend to drive to the supermarket once a week and fill up the car with seven days' worth of supplies, for which plastic bags, of course, are fantastically useful. It's a hard habit to break.

However, there has already been a bis drop in plastic bag, use, partly because the leading supermarkets and other shopkeepers are making a major effort to help us give up the habit, with a whole variety of new ideas. [6]__ It is clear that habits are starting to change; reusable bags are more visible than they were even two years ago.

Many believe there should be a tax on plastic bags, and the governments of a number of countries are considering the idea. What people have in mind is the example of Ireland, where a tax of ?0.22 was introduced on all plastic bags, the first of its kind in the world. [7]In addition, all the money from the new tax is used for environmental clean-up projects.

A. Major changes in public opinion and behaviour can certainly occur.

В. On land they are everywhere, too.

С. These range from cheap ‘bags for life’ offers to bag-free check-outs.

D. Worse still, billions get into the environment, especially the ocean environment, where they become a terrible threat to wildlife.

E. But there was a very different pattern of

household shopping then: the purchase of a much smaller number of items, on a daily basis, after a walk to small, local shops.

F. She realised then that it was too late to do anything about this man-made disaster.

G. This quickly brought about a quite amazing reduction of 90 per cent, from 1.2 billion bags a year to fewer than 200,000 and an enormous increase in the use of cloth bags.

H. As a result, she started a movement to turn her home town into the first community in the country to be free of plastic bags.

Part III

You are going to read about four women who are vegetarian. For questions 1-15, choose from the women (A-D). The women may be chosen more than once.

EAT TO LIVE

Which woman

was influenced by someone?	1
is aware that she might not be eating a healthy diet?
admits to not always making homemade food?
has joined an organisation to find out more?	4
has enjoyed cooking for a long time?
was surprised when she found out what was in convenience food?
checked with a specialist that being a vegetarian is healthy?
dislikes some vegetarian food?	8
is vegetarian for moral reasons?
still enjoys eating the occasional meat dish?
had some problems at first?
took a while to decide to change?
suffers physically after eating meat?
lives with someone who doesn't completely agree with her?
never enjoyed eating meat?

A LUISA

Luisa has been a vegetarian for four and a half years. She says, 'I've never really liked meat, and throughout my teens ate less and less of it. Then, I went abroad on holiday one year and when I came back I decided to give up meat for good. I'm more interested in food and cooking now

than I used to be. My husband and I love food and we spend hours experimenting with different recipes - there's so much you can do with vegetarian food. Our favourite foods are mainly Italian and Indian. We probably eat too much fat in our diet and are aware that we need to cut down. We're not that keen on brown rice and lentils. I also hate things that try to imitate meat. I study labels carefully but we don't worry too much when we eat out.'

B RACHEL

Rachel has been a vegetarian for four months. 'It was my New Year's resolution,' she says. 'It's been a real eye-opener. I didn't realise that a lot of things I eat - like sauces - have meat products in them. I became a member of the Vegetarian Society to get more information. It's made me realise how much goes into our food and how little we consumers know. I eat lots of pasta and lentils because they are so cheap and easy to prepare. At first I put on a lot of weight because of all the cheese I was eating. Now I'm much better at experimenting with food and I'm enjoying cooking new things. I'm now trying to convince the other people in my flat to become vegetarian too.'

C CHLOE

Having a vegetarian boyfriend at school led Chloe to think about giving up meat. Then she saw a TV programme about badly treated farm animals and it gave her the final push. 'I gave it up

there and then,' she says. 'I did worry about my kids eating only vegetarian food, but my doctor says it's fine. As a family, we eat a lot of fresh food, pasta and lentils, and try to eat organic food - although it’s not always easy. I do use convenience food quite a bit as I work full-time. We don't often eat puddings and usually have fresh fruit after a meal. The children have the worst time because their friends tell them it's unhealthy to be vegetarian. However, the children are keen to stay vegetarian.'

D KATE

'I love vegetarian food and cat it at least four days a week, sometimes more,' says Kate. 'I prefer the taste, textures and flavours - there are so many interesting ingredients to choose from. I've never been a great meat eater, even as a child, but I haven't been persuaded to cut out meat entirely, as 1 love dishes like chicken curry and salmon. I've been a keen cook for years. Being vegetarian has made me more aware of my health. When I do eat meat, I feel sleepy and slow.

USE OF ENGLISH

Part I

Read the text below and decide which answer (А, В, С or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning.

The sticking plaster

Nowadays, one of the most (0) common items found in the home is the sticking plaster.

Protecting a cut by covering the affected area with a piece of material that sticks to the skin may seem a rather (1) …idea, so it is perhaps surprising to learn that the plaster was not (2) … until about ninety years ago.

The person who thought (3) … the idea was Earle Dickson, an employee of the Johnson & Johnson company. Concerned that his wife Josephine sometimes (4) … accidents while cooking and doing other jobs, he used pieces of cotton material placed inside strips of sticky tape to cover her injuries. This prevented dirt getting into the (5) … and protected it from further harm as she did the (6) … .

Dickson's boss was impressed, so in 1921 Johnson & Johnson put the new sticking plaster into (7) … under the brand name Band-Aid. Sales at first were slow, but somebody at the company came up with the (8) … idea of giving free plasters to the Boy Scouts. This created publicity and from then (9) … it became a commercial success. Dickson was (10) … within the company, eventually becoming a senior executive.

Although the basic design of the sticking plaster has remained similar to the (11) … , there have been many developments in the materials used and it is now (12) … in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours. Total worldwide sales are believed to have exceeded 100 billion.

0 A. common	B. frequent	C. general	D. routine
1 A. clear	B. evident	C. plain	D. obvious
2 A. realized	B. imagined	C. invented	D. dreamt
3 A. up	B. over	C. in	D. forward
4 A. did	B. had	C. made	D. took
5 A. wound	B. damage	C. breakage	D. tear
6 A. homework	B. household	C. housework	D. homecoming
7 A. creation	B. formation	C. production	D. construction
8 A. keen	B. bright	C. eager	D. shining
9 A. after	B. to	C. since	D. on
10 A. raised	B. lifted	C. advanced	D. promoted
11 A. model	B. original	C. sample	D. standard
12 A. available	B. achievable	C. accessible	D. attainable

PART II

For questions 1-12,read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only oneword in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).