Opinion
The debate over plastic or paper has shifted to re-use when it comes to grocery and shopping bags. Across the world, people and governments are understanding the cost of use-and-discard shopping bags. They are encouraging instead re-usable bags. It’s time to for Americans, the private and public sector, to expand this commitment to re-use.
Last week, the BostonGlobe.com reported that environmental officials and supermarkets were going to sign a pact “to reduce by a third the plastic and paper bags the grocers distribute in Massachusetts. The pact would mark the first statewide effort to control the billions of bags that end up as litter everywhere from tree branches to beach fronts.” See BostonGlobe.com.
It seems most people are willing to bring their own bags when shopping, except for that unfortunate “I forgot them at home” syndrome.
However, have you noticed how necessity tends to focus the mind? One fills the car with fuel to keep it running and closes doors to the outdoors to stay warm in winter, and turns off water faucets so as not to waste resources.
Perhaps it’s time to make re-use and the conservation of resources more of a necessity and an expected and accepted way of life vs. an option.
Consider: Each minute, over one million plastic bags are consumed worldwide. In the US, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed annually, according to the EPA. Plastic bags photo-degrade, they don’t biodegrade. They break down into ever-smaller pieces that contaminate soil and water and enter the food chain when animals ingest them. Every year hundreds of thousands of whales, sea turtles and marine mammals die from ingesting plastic bags that end up in the ocean.
It can be done. We just need to find the will and the way.
Ireland passed a consumption tax on plastic bags in 2002. 33 cents for a bag at the register. Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94% as people turned to re-usable bags. An effective advertising campaign accompanied the effort.
When it comes to the shopping bag, it’s time we embrace, if not insist, on re-use.
Catherine at SunapeeNews.com
Related articles:
- Plastic bag use falls by 26 per cent in two years (telegraph.co.uk)
- Reusable Shopping Bag Savings Going Down the Drain (suddenlyfrugal.wordpress.com)
- Another Global War: Against Plastic Bags (themoderatevoice.com)
- Massachusetts Stores Go Green (wbru.com)
Filed under: Commerce, Energy & Environment, Opinion, Politics & Public Policy Tagged: | Environmental Protection
I solved my “I forgot it at home syndrome” with having two sets of shopping bags. If I forget one set at home, there is always the other set in the car. They are only 99 cents …… There have been a few times, however, when I have forgotten them in the car and had to go retrieve them. I am with Ireland….let us start charging to use the plastic bags.