Lose the Plastic Bags -- Seriously

They’re called “urban tumbleweed.” When they’re in trees along the highway, they’re “ghosts.” But plastic bags aren’t cute. Statistics about their use are staggering – something like 500 billion per year worldwide, 380 billion in the U.S. alone. Only a tiny fraction are recycled; meanwhile many millions are let loose in the world. They’re used for a matter of minutes, and they take decades to break down in the environment, poisoning, tangling, and choking birds and sealife as they go. This is not news to anyone. The trick is to remember to take reusable bags with you when you shop, to politely refuse plastic bags at stores, and to recover plastic bags you find out loose in the world.

For more on the havoc these little monsters wreak, visit noplasticbags.blogspot.com.

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Comments

[Dan Dickison]

Thanks for the useful information about the plastic bag issue. I continually find that sales clerks are suprised when I refuse the bags and carry an armload of goods out to the car instead, which is what I've taken to doing in the past year. My suspicion is that managers at many stores, primarily grocery stores, are instructed to "push" bags on customers. Certainly there's a marketing value to having bags out their with your logo and word mark, but it's also quite possible that some bag purveyors have a quota system in place with the stores that buy and use their bags.
Think of the consumers' role in this instance as that of educator. We need to convey to the sales clerks that it's not necessary for them to give us bags, and in fact, it's damaging for them to do so. If you impart this info in a friendly way, and enough consumers do so, we'll cultivate the clerks as allies in this effort and they can reform the behavior of their managers.

[Padraig Murchadha]

My understanding is that while the plastic bags may break down over time, the residue is polymers that never break down.