The Ubiquitous Plastic Bag

A few weeks ago my friend joined the Waste Management team. During her training she was informed that the grocery bags that are so eagerly foisted upon us at the Supermarket, and this includes the smaller bags used to bundle our vegetables, ARE NOT RECYCLABLE. Oh sure, there’s a few stores who will recycle the bags for you, but good luck finding them. If you are so lucky as to have your local grocer provide this service for you, there is still the inconvenience of having to store and lug them to and fro—and we all know convenience is the American way. These minor inconveniences are actually major deterrents in our struggle to promote a balanced way of life.

This was the first major shock to my inner recycling guru. The next, which might be even more damaging—if that’s possible—was the knowledge that if a recycling truck is more than 25% “contaminated” it goes straight to the dump. So that means recyclable containers that still have food in them, books with covers attached, Capri Sun packets, and plastic bags with the recyclable emblem all are contaminates in the truck that trigger the transformation of the recycle-mobile into a dump truck.

An e-mail being passed around lately is doing a wonderful job of illustrating exactly why these bags are so much more than a nuisance. If you haven’t received the forward yet, you will, so there is no need for me to regurgitate the material, but I would like to highlight the bag/oil connection. These few facts will hopefully be an uplifting motivator for change. Due to the catastrophic environmental damage they cause Rwanda banned the bag in 2005, Bangladesh followed suit in early 2007, Ireland is now taxing the bags to help with their recycling efforts, San Francisco was the first United States city to ban the bags at the beginning of last year, and now China has joined the cause—although I’m sure economics has more to do with it than altruism, as they will be saving 37 million barrels of oil a year for this decision. In a time when our brothers, sons, fathers, and lovers (let us not forget the many women fighting for the cause) are going to war—possibly never to return—any excuse to save oil will due, whether it be altruistic or economic. So I encourage everyone to make the switch to a new, hip canvas tote when headed to the market. Many retailers are giving them away for free as advertising and incentive. Lets not wait for the city to enforce a legislative ban, let’s show the legislators that we are conscious of our actions and freely choose options other than oil.