Heck, I 'members me back in 1983 or 84 being a bagger/stockboy at Safeway, when all's we had was the paper bags, y'know. Then came 'long plastic. Plastic was supposed to be better than paper, because paper was killing trees. Then they say plastic is bad because of the oil consumption and also the endless long-term litter and impacts on wildlife. Some people point to to things like this and say "See? Environmentalists don't even know what the hell they're talking about!" When really the issue is, disposable bags, not what they're made out of. And the bigger issue is just consumption of resources, in general.
So I remember hearing that platic bags are harmul a number of years back and thought, "Whatever," because what the hell can you do? Well, I still don't know what to do, but I'm thinking about it for a few reasons.
One is the numbers. 5 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide annually, and they end up everywhere. They're also filling up landfills. That tied in with this PPT that I'm sure many of you have seen, that I got from my sister last week, located here: http://www.mobilebaynep.com/site/Forefront/TheDangersofPlasticBags.pdf
After I viewed that, I remembered that, in the Pacific Ocean, there is a floating island of plastic and trash that is estimated to be twice the size of Texas. That's frickin' big. Texas takes a long time to drive across going 80 mph. Imagine that times two, floating around in the damn ocean. I can barely imagine it. More on that here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch and another good article here http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/10/19/SS6JS8RH0.DTL&type=politics The crazy thing is that nobody has photographed this thing, or at least I can't find any pics easily.
So, all those things added up in my head, and now I'm going to look for, select, and implement and substitute for disposable food shopping bags. Then I'll post an update here.
Folks are switching back to paper because that recycles better, so for now that's a start, but I'm wondering about bags you take to the store and use over and over. I think I'll start by looking at hemp bags.
So I remember hearing that platic bags are harmul a number of years back and thought, "Whatever," because what the hell can you do? Well, I still don't know what to do, but I'm thinking about it for a few reasons.
One is the numbers. 5 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide annually, and they end up everywhere. They're also filling up landfills. That tied in with this PPT that I'm sure many of you have seen, that I got from my sister last week, located here: http://www.mobilebaynep.com/site/Forefront/TheDangersofPlasticBags.pdf
After I viewed that, I remembered that, in the Pacific Ocean, there is a floating island of plastic and trash that is estimated to be twice the size of Texas. That's frickin' big. Texas takes a long time to drive across going 80 mph. Imagine that times two, floating around in the damn ocean. I can barely imagine it. More on that here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch and another good article here http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/10/19/SS6JS8RH0.DTL&type=politics The crazy thing is that nobody has photographed this thing, or at least I can't find any pics easily.
So, all those things added up in my head, and now I'm going to look for, select, and implement and substitute for disposable food shopping bags. Then I'll post an update here.
Folks are switching back to paper because that recycles better, so for now that's a start, but I'm wondering about bags you take to the store and use over and over. I think I'll start by looking at hemp bags.
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