Exactly 35 years ago (1989), before the "young, beautiful and smart" declared Montenegro an ecological state according to the "o-ruk" system, the Ecological Society of Boka Kotorska (Dr. Mišo Lazarević, journalist Slavica Kosić and I) proposed a ban use of plastic bags in the municipality of Herceg Novi.
Trading companies then replaced the plastic bags with high-quality paper ones ("Natron" - Maglaj), which we considered our great success.
These days (October 20.10, 2024), the Government of Montenegro implemented the long-announced decision to ban plastic bags with a thickness of 20 microns. And instead of the expected paper bags, they replaced them with plastic bags over 50 microns thick. This irresponsible fraud of politicians will continue to fill our seabed with an even greater amount of plastic that will decompose over hundreds of years.
The data that Montenegro uses over 63 million plastic bags annually cannot leave anyone indifferent.
We leave it to the readers to calculate what will be the mass of plastic bags that are more than twice as heavy (21,46 grams) compared to those of 20 microns (8,29 grams) and what will be the profit of the retail chains if they are now three times more expensive .
The plastics industry developed rapidly after the First World War. By polymerization of plastic masses, we mean such products that are made from individual molecules of the same chemical composition, the so-called monomers, are converted, under the influence of light, heat and chemical catalysts, into high-molecular products consisting of chain molecules. Those high-molecular chain molecules are intertwined, which determines their plastic and elastic properties.
One of the most common masses is the so-called polyvinyl chloride or PVC for short. Polyvinyl products have high mechanical hardness and resistance to chemical corrosion. PVC products are the most important today and their production has grown enormously from decade to decade, which speaks of their enormous use and importance.
If plastic waste is analyzed, it can be seen that plastic bags for everyday use are the most common part of it. Their use and inadequate disposal is particularly pronounced in the tourist season when armies of tourists with the help of the local population, out of carelessness, negligence or ignorance, unwittingly pollute the environment leaving behind large amounts of waste, regardless of whether they are on the seashore or on the mountain. Well, we can say that man remains man, that is, he constantly takes from nature, but gives nothing. As an illustration, let us use what our divers say, who are in daily contact with the sea in our bay. They say: “Only when we dive do we see what is happening to our beautiful bay. At a depth of ten to twenty meters, you can see plastic bags, the remains of plastic deckchairs, plastic chairs, and plastic bottles that covered the bottom. The situation is devastating considering what is in the sea. There are fewer and fewer fish, and everywhere there is waste and lifeless desolation. There is no better situation even in the open part of the Adriatic."
When plastic is found in the sea, it gradually decomposes. On its surface, the decomposition process is constantly going on. Discarded plastic objects break down over time under the influence of sea waves and sunlight, and as a result we have seawater "soaked" with invisible plastic. This kind of plastic becomes an integral and very harmful part of the marine environment and can no longer be removed from it, so it becomes part of the food chain of marine organisms in which we also participate. The same thing happens with our rivers and mountains, where PVC waste from the coast is deposited in open landfills - garbage dumps, the decomposition of which permanently pollutes the groundwater.
Huge PVC pollution arrives from the beaches of the Montenegrin coast. There are a total of 302 beaches on our coast, of which 217 are landscaped and built. On each of these "groomed" beaches there is a so-called an open bar, which is why it is rented after all. The open bars have a similar appearance, covered with PVC awnings. In the hinterland of such temporary facilities there are temporary storages of drinks in plastic packaging arranged in plastic crates. In front of the open bar there is a terrace with plastic tables and chairs (usually 30-100 sets). Even further, on the leased, auctioned beach, there is a huge number (50-400) of plastic deckchairs and other, of course, plastic material.
Since the majority of newly composed businessmen or so-called beach managers concluded that this is a simple, fast and very easy way of making money (especially from renting sunbeds), in recent years there has been a real boom in renting beaches.
The lifespan of plastic deckchairs is about three years. What happens to them later when, probably, they end up in the sea or in the mountain dumps that Montenegro abounds in? It has been scientifically proven that decomposed plastic has become a regular food for marine organisms, replacing plankton, which is becoming less and less, and very small fragments of plastic are increasing. Even without this degradation, the consequences of plastic waste for marine life are catastrophic as millions of seabirds and fish replace their food with plastic. We are rapidly approaching the moment after which revitalization and recovery of the marine environment will not be possible.
If our government continues with such an irresponsible policy as this "ban on plastic bags", I think that in the "first ecological country in the world" we should think about changing the first article of our Constitution - because it really isn't.
The author is a senior research associate at the "Dr. Simo Milošević" Igalo Institute
In the bay in front of Igal - photos from the monograph by Dr. Lj. Radojičić "My fight for the natural healing resources of Igal", photo: Dragan Gačević
Bonus video:
