Americans throw away one hundred billion polyethlene bags a year: They choke thosands of marine animals annually; the inks used to print all those smiley faces break down in landfills and create a toxic seep. Though plastic bags take up less than 4% of all landfill space (they're easily compressed), estimates on how long they take to decompose range from a hundred years to a thousand.
-From onearth. "It's Not My Bag, Baby!" by L.J. Williamson.
Treehugger: "Ban or No Ban: The Debate over Plastic Bags in LA" by Jeremy Elton Jacquot
World Is Green: "...Is there an Alternate Solution?" (Green Economics)
12 comments:
I've slowly become a lot more bag conscious over this past year. I really don't buy a lot of things, so it didn't make me uncomfortable when I reached for a paper or plastic bag.
My mother had always used paper bags when I was little to bring in the groceries. So, in a case of monkey see monkey do, I too got in the habit of using paper bags.
However, when I came to the University last year the place where I shopped didn't have handles to its paper bags. This turned out to be a rather surprising inconvenience to me. I used plastic for about a year, but I tried to reuse them instead of tossing them into the trash. I'd carry things to class in them.
Now though, I really do try to use my manpurse—for lack of a better word—do carry my items in. I'll buy things from the store and I've found it's a lot quicker to dump it into my back than to be stuck toting some plastic bag around while my hand freezes off in the dead winter.
For me, it's just more practical.
Paper or plastic...why even choose one at all? How come we should be supplied with more stuff for all the things we've just bought?
Neither one is particularly helpful to the environment, so I say let's pitch them both. Far better instead is the idea of using a bag (or bags) one has already brought to cart stuff back and forth. If we can eliminate both the paper and plastic bag option, then customers have no choice but to bring their own means of transporting goods. Perhaps that could help reduce the huge quantities of purchases made by shoppers. If they only have one or two bags, well, I guess they'll just have to put back that bulk package of cheetos as well as the extra six pairs of socks.
In fact, by removing paper and plastic bags from stores, we could also eliminate the idea of punishing negative behavior by having to install a tax on using paper or plastic. It's forcing shoppers to be a little more resourceful, but in the long run benefits everyone, both the store for not having to provide bag materials, and shoppers from having to pay any bag tax.
Right now we can individually make this change by using our own method of transportation of purchased goods, whether reusable bags, 'manpurses' like Matt's, or any other form of container.
If there is one thing related to consumerism and the environment that I am best at, it is avoiding the use of any new bags. Growing up, my family always used paper bags from the grocery store. We would fold them after use and store them in a shelf that we would return to for reuse. We would always reuse them in any way, small bags for sack lunch, big bags for halloween costumes, and reuse for the grocery store that would charge you to buy bags. (we even reused the plastic bags that loafs of bread come in as socks when traveling through swampy land on our property, keeping our socks and feet dry).
There was a period in my life where I relapsed and began to slip and use more bags than necessary. I'm clean again now though, and have been for the past few years. I reuse whatever bags I have at the time.
It's weird how businesses are so willing to bag things for you. It costs them money to bag, so why would they encourage it? Now they are trying to make money by selling new "reusable bags." WTF? Use an old backpack or something from goodwill, you don't need to buy new to go green.
I wonder how hard it would be for our country to handle a nation-wide refusal of businesses to give out bags to the customers. Would we be able to handle this disastrous set of events? Would there be piles of food and items left at stores because the consumers couldn’t remember to bring their own carrying devices? I wonder if its even possible for us to handle this.
The answer is; we can. Countries all over the world have already made this a popular practice. Surprise, surprise their citizens were able to remember their own bags time after time. In fact if you ask the locals of these countries, you would find that they not only don’t mind the hassle of bringing their own bags, but they are also proud of the waste that is prevented by their actions.
This I believe is key to the end of plastic bags in this country. First the big sellers need to refuse giving bags out to their customers, and then we need to campaign to make reusing your own bags not only cool, but also a source of pride. I myself find that there is pride to be found in bringing your own bag, or using a backpack, etc. It also prevents people from buying more than they need, or many unnecessary food products because they would then be using up precious bag space. This, I think, would do many positive things for us, it would ; cut down on pollution, cut down on food waste, and possible make people think about the food they are buying.
When came to college I got rid of my car mainly to save money, but by getting rid of it, I am now naturally forced to walk or use public transport to get where I need to go and back. When buying things I have learned that I can only take back what I can carry. I have grown in the habit of bringing my own bags to the grocery store mainly because they are more sturdy than any disposable bag paper or plastic. More than anything it is a humbling experience to think about what you can carry home when at the grocery store or shop. It has changed what I consume, as well as the rate I consume it at.
Back in my home in Grand Rapids, I can just picture the plastic bag on our door handle to the pantry shoved so full of plastic bags it’s spilling over. Sure, it’s great to have an easy bag ready when you need it, but they add up before we’re able to reuse them. It’s incredibly wasteful. My mom decided she had enough of this last year and bought those blue meijer resusable bags. They were great at first, but she started to forget them. She’s remembers on and off to use them, but I guess in her crazy life she finds it hard to throw them back in the car to be ready for reuse. I must admit I find this a bit ridiculous. It shouldn’t be that hard to get into the habit of bringing a pile of bags to the grocery store. When she bought them, she did give me one and I later also purchased a target re-usable bag. I personally love them! The target bag is huge and I’ve used it to transport my own stuff (not just groceries) time and time again. I used to get plastic and feel okay about it because I used the bags as trash bags for my mini trash can in my room here in Ann Arbor, but I guess I shouldn’t really be proud of trash. But I’ve saved more than enough to be set for awhile, so I’ve been consistent this year in using my meijer and target reusable bags. I find it more convenient. They are sturdier, larger, and I usually only need the one or two. I like them for groceries as opposed to the regular over the shoulder bags I carry around because they are shaped better and fold up for easy storage when I’m not using them. It’s great to not have plastic bags lying around and I wish more people would bring their own inexpensive bags and chose to not use plastic. It would do wonders for our environment. I think people are starting to catch on to this and move away from plastic at grocery stores, but I think we overlook plastic at other places we shop. I usually wouldn’t ask someone at a retail store to hand me my purchases at the checkout to shove into my own bag. Yet maybe I should, for I have a huge collection of saved plastic bags from various stores. They are great for transporting art supplies, not so fantastic for the environment. I could be wrong though. I did work retail this summer and I can recount quite a few people asking me to hand them their smaller purchases to put into their own bags instead of using a new one. It’s a start at least and I think I will try harder to extend my no plastic bag policy outside of the grocery realm and into all my purchases!
I see the continued use of plastic bags as a statement for something even bigger than it is. By now, almost everyone in the US has to have some sense of the damage of plastic bags, especially as retailers bombard us with the new options of the “green” shopping bags. But yet, somehow we continue to use plastic bags each time we go to the store. I guess maybe we feel like we cannot be the change because everyone else uses them anyway, or because everyone else uses them for ease, why should we be the ones to change our ways?
It is interesting to think about this idea in conjunction with problems that work on a bigger scale. Why don’t things change: our problems in politics, in the environment, in social change? A large part of this could be a result of the way we interact with each other. As personal responsibility get lost in our consumer based society we rely on others to change before we change. Otherwise life isn’t fair, because you had to spend money on earth friendly bags while the others get to use the free ones everyday. Ultimately that’s not what it is about, we need to gain some insight as to the true cost of things, what do “free plastic bags” really mean; these are probably a lot more expensive than free as we begin to see what cost it actually has on our earth and our living environments.
Kelsey Sovereign
Plastic bags are easy and efficient, yet wasteful and damaging to the environment. Grocery stores conveniently leave plenty of plastic bags for shoppers to take their groceries home in. It's easy to to use these bags, then throw them away once you get home and never see them again. However, what people don't realize is the plastic sits in landfills for hundreds to possibly a thousand years.
The fact about the ink releasing toxins surprised me. I had no idea that the unnecessary little smiley faces and "thank you" words on plastic bags are so damaging.
It is not hard to use a cloth bag when shopping. If everyone used cloth bags at the grocery store we would make a huge difference in how much plastic enters landfills. It is not a hard commitment, and it is not hard at all. It's a simple change that will make a huge difference.
I have definitely become more of aware over the last year or two about the little things to change, like plastic bags. When I was younger I didn't see a problem with getting plastic bags, especially since I re-used them to pick up after my dog when I walked him, but over the last year, my mother and I have become a lot more "green conscious" in the things we do.
We now bring fabric bags to the grocery store instead of using their plastic ones, and buy a lot more products that have the "green" label on them. It confuses me when people buy the fabric bags that the grocery store sells when you can bring in your own bags from home.
What I find very interesting about the debate on “paper versus plastic,” is that I always thought paper was better to use than plastic. However, Trumpey once said in lecture, while paper may be more environmentally friendly, more people seem to reuse plastic bags over paper ones, so ultimately plastic may truly be the better choice. I do think this is a very true statement, I find myself constantly reusing plastic bags over paper ones just because they seem easier to handle and stronger and last longer. They definitely do not break or rip as easily as paper bags. But, with that said, I also do think that the canvas bags are a much better alternative to both paper and plastic and that everyone should be using reusable bags that are not as harmful to the environment. Environmental issues should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds, and everyone should be doing as much as they possibly can to prevent form harming the environment more than we already have. A great idea would be to stop manufacturing plastic and paper bags all together, at least in the supermarkets, and hand out canvas bags to everyone instead, or somehow enforce the reuse of the canvas bags in each market trip.
I had no idea that the smile faces on plastic bags turn into a toxic mess and that that the plastic bags in the end harm our environment. I am always stuck when the cashier asks me paper or plastic? By choosing paper, I am contributing to cutting down trees, by choosing plastic, I am bringing a degradable mess to the environment. It is a simple question with many complexities. I often alternate what material I choose, but thinking about it, why don't I just bring my own reusable bag to the grocery store. I will know that it won't break (which often happens to me) and I will never have to answer the dreaded question, paper or plastic?
One thing I do do is keep all of my old bags. I never throw away a paper or plastic bag unless it is ripped or something leaked into it. They are useful to reuse but I do not always need them. I have a pile of plastic and paper bags overflowing in a cubby in my kitchen.
According to Joe Trumpey, choosing plastic over paper is a better choice, but after thinking about it, and reading what you have posted, it makes no sense to choose plastic either.
I am interested in responding to this in relationship to the Treehugger article "Ban or No Ban: The Debate over Plastic Bags in LA." In my life, plastic bags are very prevalent. I frequently ask for plastic over paper because I know that plastic bags are recyclable (though in most cases they downcycle). I also understand that they are cheaper to transport. While the article makes it clear that plastic bags are not wanted at all in LA, the reasoning is entirely related to the bay. In the case of landfills, plastic bags are not terrible. Where they become threatening is when they encroach and poison environments that are needed to support life. The article points to a solution implemented in China in which thin "disposable" plastic bags are banned, and the thicker bags must be purchased at checkout. I think this is an interesting idea that temporarily addresses the issue, which is consumer habit. However, maybe there is a way to reward consumers for good behavior, or make good behavior so easy that it becomes the norm, rather than advocating an idea that punishes consumers for bad behavior. After all, it seems that at the end of the day, the consumer is always right, and retailers don't want to get on their bad side.
Post a Comment