Plagued by plastic bags
On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind — the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.
I spent my Friday evening with purpose: le nettoyage. I tackled three key spots in my living room that were riddled with junk, amalgamated some unpacked stuff sitting around in two boxes since last year (oy), and subsequently made good space in my kitchen closet. I’d have to say half of what was lingering in that closet, however, was plastic bags.
Big ones, small ones, some the size of your head. Give ’em a twist, a flick of the wrist… and stuff them into four or five groups of screw-it-I-don’t-care-if-it-says-it’s-recyclable-or-not-it’s-getting-recycled-NOW bags. Gone, goodbye.
And at the end of it all, there are still more.
Some have purpose: carting or storing clothes, Christmas gifts, etc. Some stronger, some nicer, some with nostalgia attached but none of those include bags from the supermarket. I also don’t need five IKEA bags, six Smart Set bags nor teeny tiny ones in different colours. The supermarket bags, though? Some are kept for supermarket shopping but most of them are kept for chucking garbage.
I admired Thrifty Foods’s message that their bags will biodegrade in a short amount of time. Meanwhile most of the others say they’re either HDPE or LDPE and recyclable, but how many people actually do it?
The province is following California’s climate change policies to some extent, so let’s keep up with it and ban plastic bags, too. Really, I don’t think it would be that difficult. Let’s say we give supermarkets and large chains an accelerated deadline, put recycled and organic cotton bags on sale, and encourage the use of bins. People will catch on and in no time will realise how wonderful it is to not be drowning in plastic.
Why plastic bags need to go
Aside from the obvious household burden and landfills, plastic bags kill animals, especially marine life such as turtles. In the marine environment alone, upwards of 100,000 animals each year die from plastic bag litter. They pollute our surroundings, have the potential to suffocate babies, and are produced in great volumes. Every minute, over one million plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That’s 500 billion to 1 trillion each year! [ Reusable Bags ]
Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
Visit Reusable Bags to get reusable totes and other eco-friendly items. I recommend Klean Kanteen and SIGG water bottles. Also check out BYOB Bring Your Own Bag which is based out of Vancouver. The Body Shop also sells fashionable $5 cotton bags for a good cause, with positive social and ethical statements on it. Roots apparently sells totes as well.
So ditch your plastic bags, weave existing ones into rugs for an indestructible garage door mat, and pick up some reusable bags. Encourage your local grocery store, farmer’s market, or retailer to switch to biodegradable and/or reusable bags, and if someone offers you a bag when you really don’t need one, just say “no thanks.” Sometimes I get handed one without being asked first and I politely decline!
Actually, it was odd, my first time bringing bags to PriceSmart. I insisted on using my own bags and packing them myself, and it seemed I took the clerk aback. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Yes!”
So do it for our environment, do it for your children, for yourself. “Each high quality reusable shopping bag you use has the potential to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic bags over its lifetime.”
Start today.