June is Declared as Green Month

By initiative of Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Georgia, June is declared as Green Month. As InterPressNewswas told by the Ministry of Environment and Natural resources, events are planned on this matter.

The most large scale event in the frameworks of the Green Month – community clean-ups will be held on 16 June in Tbilisi and all the regions of Georgia.

Public offices, International organizations, central and local NGOs, educational institutions, media, students, pupils, over 10 000 volunteers will take part in the event.

“It takes 4 seconds to toss the waste into the basket, while how long does it take to totally decompose the waste: “paper towel – 2-3 weeks, banana peel – 3-4 weeks; paper bag – 1 month, newspaper - 1,5 months, apple core -2 months, orange peels – 6 months, cotton socks – 1-5 years; Milk cartons – 5 years, cigarette butts – 10-22 years; leather shoes – 25-40 years; foamed plastic cups – 50 years, rubber tire- 5-80 years, aluminum can – 200-500 years; disposable diapers – 500 years; plastic bottles – 450 years, plastic bag – 200-1000 years”, the Ministry informs.

Ministry of Environmental Protection publishes general information about public awareness of adverse effect of polyethylene. 4 trillion plastic bags are used in the world annually; 6 300 000 tons of waste end up in the ocean annually, mostly polyethylene; 1 000 000 birds and 100 000 sea animals die annually due to the polyethylene. Plastic bags were one of the reasons for the havoc caused during Mumbai floods in 2005. Distribution and production of plastic bags have been banned in 40 countries. Denmark introduced payment for issuing plastic bags in 1994, decreasing plastic bag usage by 90%. There was a 94% percent drop in plastic bag use in Ireland after increase of price. Reusable cloth bags are used in Ireland now. Using plastic bags in Italy was banned in 2011, and in Singapore, Bangladesh and Taiwan from 2003.