3rd July International Plastic Bag Free Day

The 3rd of July is International Plastic Bag Free Day, a global initiative to eliminate the use of plastic bags. Plastic bags may seem like a useful convenience for grocery purchasing, but they have a devastating impact on the environment. Plastic bags can take up to 500 years to decompose, so they make up a significant portion of what remains in our landfills and pollutes our waterways.

I have highlighted this day before here and here, but although our supermarkets and many other shops no longer have single use plastic bags, there is still a problem and more and more picture books for very young children seem to want to 'hammer' home the message. One of the library staff thinks we are scaring our preschoolers? Are we? I'd like to know what effect they have.

In the library we have:

• Bag in the Wind  by Ted Kooser and Barry Root

One cold morning in early spring, a bulldozer pushes a pile of garbage around a landfill and uncovers an empty plastic bag — a perfectly good bag, the color of the skin of a yellow onion, with two holes for handles — that someone has thrown away. Just then, a puff of wind lifts the rolling, flapping bag over a chain-link fence and into the lives of several townsfolk — a can-collecting girl, a homeless man, a store owner — not that all of them notice.

• Jelly-Boy  by Nicole Godwin and Christopher Nielsen

What happens when a jellyfish falls in love with a plastic bag she mistakes for a jelly-boy? Jelly-Boy is different. He is big and strong. And not as wobbly as the other Jelly-boys. By the time Jelly-Girl discovers the dangerous truth about her new friend, it may already be too late. 

• Saving Seal  by Diane Jackson Hill and Craig Smith

Lizzie and Grandpa Dave are motivated to do something about cleaning up their Bay and saving the marine life who are being threatened more and more by the rubbish found in the Bay and on their beaches. They encourage the towns people to join them in their fight against plastic pollution devastating their beaches and harming marine life. 

• Little Pago by Lauren Briggs

 Little Pago and his friends set out on an adventurous journey in search for food, but not everything floating in the ocean is safe for a baby turtle to eat. A plastic bag is easily mistaken for some of Little Pago's favourite food. Little Pago is a mascot for the welfare of all Australian sea turtles and shines a light on one of the critical threats that face sea turtles, plastic waste in our ocean. It encourages readers to challenge the way we live, so that collectively we can work towards preventing these majestic sea creatures becoming extinct.

• Little Turtle and the Changing Sea by Becky Davies and Jennie Poh

Little Turtle loves the ocean with her whole heart. As the years pass, she repeats an incredible journey across the world to the beautiful coral reefs. But one day she finds that plastic has invaded her beloved ocean. Could Turtle's journey be over forever?

• A Bag and a Bird by Pamela Allen

This is a story of a plastic bag and a bird - a cautionary tale about taking care of our environment as well as being a wonderful showcase of some of the famous sights of Sydney.

• Somebody Swallowed Stanley by Sarah Roberts and Hannah Peck

Most jellyfish have dangly-gangly tentacles, but Stanley has two handles...

• One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the recycling women of Gambia by Miranda Paul and Elizabeth Zunon

For years, plastic bags were a cheap and convenient option for carrying goods in Njau, Gambia. However, when these bags broke or were no longer needed, they were carelessly discarded, leading to an unsightly accumulation of plastic waste alongside roads. Isatou Ceesay decided to take action, and she began to collect the plastic bags and recycle them into something new. Her efforts not only helped to clean up the environment, but also provided income for women in her community who had been struggling to make ends meet.