The United Kingdom may have to remake a new policy on recycling shopping bags. A study by experts at the University of Arizona showed that reusable shopping bags may pose a danger to public health because of high levels of bacteria on the bags.
The researchers experimented on the reusable bags of 84 consumers in Tucson, Los Angeles
and San Francisco. Tests showed 50 percent of the bags have traces of E. coli, a toxin which could be harmful to people.
The researchers also found that consumers do not regularly wash their reusable bags, which contain bacteria from raw meat packaging where as the bags must be washed at high temperatures. Study leader Professor Charles Gerba launched an educational campaign among shoppers to wash their reusable bags regularly. But alarmingly, another study showed that 97 percent of recyclable bag users do
not wash or bleach their bags.
The U.K. has not officially banned single-use shopping bags, but the government has set a target of cutting plastic bag use by 50 percent. About 45 percent of Britons claim they have purchased a recyclable bag, although only 12 percent use these bags regularly. The only way to save people is to band shopping bags and instead of that the shops can order their bags, made of cotton and jute. So stop using poly bags to reduce public health danger.
The researchers experimented on the reusable bags of 84 consumers in Tucson, Los Angeles
and San Francisco. Tests showed 50 percent of the bags have traces of E. coli, a toxin which could be harmful to people.The researchers also found that consumers do not regularly wash their reusable bags, which contain bacteria from raw meat packaging where as the bags must be washed at high temperatures. Study leader Professor Charles Gerba launched an educational campaign among shoppers to wash their reusable bags regularly. But alarmingly, another study showed that 97 percent of recyclable bag users do
not wash or bleach their bags. The U.K. has not officially banned single-use shopping bags, but the government has set a target of cutting plastic bag use by 50 percent. About 45 percent of Britons claim they have purchased a recyclable bag, although only 12 percent use these bags regularly. The only way to save people is to band shopping bags and instead of that the shops can order their bags, made of cotton and jute. So stop using poly bags to reduce public health danger.
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