According to the National Litter Index (NLI) report, Queensland is officially known as the ‘most littered Mainland State’ in Australia.
To help combat this, not-for-profit environmental organisation Queensland Conservation, with the generous pro bono support of national advertising agency ‘George Patterson Y&R (GPY&R), have released a web film on the wasteful and deadly phenomenon – plastic bags.
Queensland Conservation Executive Director, Toby Hutcheon said that in Queensland alone it is estimated that 1 billion plastic bags are used every year and that the average household collects 60 bags per week.
“As the most littered ‘Mainland State’, it’s time that the Queensland Government got behind Queensland Conservations aim to have a ban on single-use plastic bags by 2015.”
Toby said that the web film titled ’PLASTIC BAGS – QLD’S HAD A GUTFUL’ aims to bring home the reality to shoppers that we wouldn’t feed plastic bags to our kids, so why do we release them in to the environment to hurt our wildlife – highlighting that each year 1 million sea birds die an agonising death after ingesting plastic.
“We’d like to take this time to thank GPY&R, as without their support this web film would not have been possible. It’s organisations like this, who get behind not-for-profits, that really make a difference to the environment and the lives of others,” Toby said.
When asked for comment as to why GPY&R worked on the film for free, Managing Director Phil McDonald said that he felt the need to get involved, as Queensland is lagging behind other States in banning single-use plastic bags.
“Other States and Territories have been running high-profile campaigns that have assisted them in banning the bag in their regions. I could see that Queensland Conservation was pushing the issue along, but felt that by offering our services that we could help to highlight the issue visually, which I think we have been successful in doing,” he said.
Also lending his support to the web film has been celebrity Chef, TV presenter and restaurateur, Ben O’Donoghue, who has personally donated his time and talent to help highlight the cause.
“When Queensland Conservation contacted me to see if I would be interested in doing this, I jumped at the opportunity no questions asked! To me the plastic bag is a modern day commodity that we can all re-learn to do without, and if by doing this it encourages people to take their own bag when shopping, then it’s been well worth my time,” he said.
The web film ’PLASTIC BAGS – QLD’S HAD A GUTFUL’ can be viewed online at www.QldsHadAGutful.org.au with the aim being to raise enough money to have it air on Queensland TV.