Plastic Bags

Although most have heard tell about their undoubted evilness, I am sure that many people still accept to use plastic bags. Although most supermarkets are unwilling to give them out, or have stopped altogether, I have noticed that a lot of other stores (clothing, footwear, home deco, etc) still provide them with every purchase. I guiltily admit that I have found this handy when on an impromptu shopping trip (*gasp*), but when you could just as easily store your stash in a more durable and reusable alternative there is no point in amassing a large collection of plastic store bags. You may say: I can use them again for this or that... In the end, there are way too many invading your house and sticking out from all corners (I notice that I never have to LOOK for a plastic bag, they are always just there).


What I suggest is that you buy a reusable bag that you can carry around with you. One that wraps up small to fit in your handbag, backpack, car, etc. Take all (alright most, some are handy to be reused as bin bags or carry bags) of your bags to the recycling centre (yes they can be recycled! as can clean, dry soft plastic packaging) and start refusing any bags that come your way.


If you want to go even further, suggest that store owners give out or sell reusable bags along with items: their customers can advertise their store while carrying around a custom reusable bag (the Australian clothing store Supre have cunningly mastered this marketing strategy, because name brand t-shirts are so last decade).









If you are not convinced about the evilness of the plastic bag and will continue to amass them only to throw them away in a never ending cycle of sin, I shall post a few facts so that hopefully your common sense shall find it logical to abandon the temptation of plastic and devote yourself to the reusable shopping bag:

• Approximately 500 nautical miles off the California coast sits a growing"plastic island," a gargantuan patch of floating plastic trash held together by currents stretching across the northern Pacific almost as far as Japan. This "plastic island" is made up of about 7 billion pounds of plastic garbage, and measures about twice the size of Texas. (Yes this does exist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch)
• Of 500 000 albatross chicks born each year on Midway Atoll, about 200 000 die of starvation. Adult albatrosses mistake plastic trash for food and end up feeding it to their chicks. (L.A. Times)  (also visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc0a4uuI1gY to find out more about this)
• In good circumstances, high-density polyethylene will take more than 20 years to degrade. In less ideal circumstances (land fills or as general refuse), a bag will take more than 1 000 years to degrade.
• The Environmental Protection Agency estimated 3 960 000 tons of plastic bags, sack and wraps were produced in 2008. Of those, 3,570,000 tons (90%) were discarded.
• When plastics break down, they don't biodegrade; they photodegrade. This means the materials break down to smaller fragments which readily soak up toxins. They then contaminate soil, waterways, and animals upon digestion.
• In the statistical breakdown of a 2008 cleanup by the Ocean Conservancy, numbers were kept on 43 different types of refuse. Cigarette butts were the most common. Plastic bags came in second.

Facts from this website: http://www.reuseit.com/learn-more/top-facts

So remember: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It's not for nothing!