Ayano Hodouchi & Nathan Toohey

With more than 5 tonnes of plastic being hauled out of Kuzminki-Lyublino park every month, specialists have chosen to take some decisive action to combat the mounting mound of polyethylene litter - a ban on plastic bags in the park's kiosks.

According to Osip Tuninsky, chief of the park's eco centre, next year special bags made of cotton will be ordered for the park.

"Environmentalists want to ban the use of plastic bags in the capital's parks," RIA Novosti quoted Tuninsky as saying. "In the first phase, the price of plastic bags will be sharply increased. Later, they will be completely removed from use. Only time will show if our park will become the first park without plastic bags," Tuninsky says.

"We want visitors to come with their own bags, so that less plastic will be used and waste reduced," he added.

Tuninsky said that plastic is a very useful material - at one time, plastic packaging took the place of paper bags, saving many a tree from being felled. However, on the other hand, he said that plastic bags have a long-lasting negative impact on the environment, as was shown over time.

Citywide plans

Moscow authorities announced in August that they intended to phase out the use of plastic bags and packaging and replace it with paper and biodegradable alternatives.

"A large programme to replace plastic bags in retail chains is being developed," said Leonid Bochin, head of the capital's Environmental Development Department. "It will soon see the light of day. It is an extremely important measure."

Bochin said that every year Moscow sees half a million tonnes of plastic bags sent to the rubbish tip.

"They take 100 years or more to break down," said Tuninsky. "Biodegradable bags are a typical trend found in many cities."

Tuninsky said that retails chains had responded positively to the idea of biodegradable bags.

"The question is how to introduce this in an economically viable way," said Tuninsky. "In several counties they have banned plastic bags. I don't know if we're ready for this or not."

Tuninsky added that the country needed to introduce measures obliging the plastic bag manufacturers to pay for their recycling.

"Three, four years ago the country lost $10 billion due to the lack of such a law, now that figure may have reached $20 billion."

Public in favour

Despite stereotypes of Russian's devil-may-care attitude to environmental issues, most Russians are in favour of replacing plastic bags with biodegradable alternatives, a recent survey has revealed.

The Superjob.ru survey, which involved 1,800 people from around Russia, found that 82 per cent of respondents were willing to abandon polyethylene bags - that is, 84 per cent of the female respondents and 78 per cent of the males. At the same time, the majority of these respondents specified that they would give up plastic bags only if such a measure actually helped improve the environment, and if they were offered paper bags or cotton bags that were "sufficiently durable" and of "good quality".

Paper bags were supported by 11 per cent of participants in the survey, calling them "ecological and pleasant" and affirming "I'm for compulsory switching of plastic bags to paper bags".

Eight per cent of Russians were not prepared to give up their plastic bags, however. In their opinion, "bags don't pollute the environment as much as factories and cars", and "polyethylene is a very convenient packaging material which can be used many times; they need to be collected and recycled, not disposed in a landfill".

One in 10 respondents didn't know what to answer: "Any material can be recycled, and polyethylene bags should be recycled as well. But apparently, it's easier to just burn it all up than to try to recycle it..." said one respondent.