Who Killed the Plastic Bag?
End the use of plastic bags in your community.
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Who Killed the Plastic Bag?
Hi, and welcome to the Make-It-Green Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for an Earth Friendly Life. In today’s episode, I’m going to give you some more helpful tips about how to rid your community of plastic bags, as well as some success stories to give you a little inspiration.
But first, I want to remind all you Grammar Girl fans out there that the first print book by a Quick and Dirty Tips host is now available for purchase! You can pick up your copy of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty at your favorite bookstore or online retailer. Don’t be caught writing without one!
Leopards Can’t Change Their Spots
In early 2007, the city of San Francisco outlawed the use of plastic grocery bags that are not biodegradable. Biodegradable bags are made from long chains of corn sugar molecules, not long chains of petroleum hydrocarbons. More bacteria can break down these corn sugars polymers into their constituent monomers, which then become food for the bacteria. By contrast, there are relatively few bacteria that can break down the polyethylene grocery bags into their ethylene molecules and eat them for lunch.
These biodegradable polymers are wonderful for those of us who can’t do without some plastics. For example, if you have a break room in your office but no sink to wash dishes, consider asking your company to buy biodegradable plates, cups, and utensils. Also, if it’s impossible for you to recycle or compost all the waste in your house, consider switching to biodegradable trash bags. Just make sure they say 100% biodegradable on the package.
Although convincing your local grocery store to switch to these corn-based bags isn’t a bad idea, those biodegradable bags still break down slowly in landfills. Soil bacteria that can eat the horrible things in landfills can’t migrate into the center of the fill, and grow very slowly because there is very little oxygen and nutrients to help them along. Also, some bags are made with only partly degradable material so that the bags break down into little bits of non-biodegradable plastics that float around in oceans, and are gobbled up by unsuspecting sea creatures that can’t digest them, either. So just replacing the bags with a degradable polymer isn’t really a sustainable solution.
Plastic Bag Assassination Strategies – The Carrot
In California, many establishments are using the carrot approach to get rid of plastic bags. A few of the grocery stores I shop in offer you a ten-cent discount for bringing in your own plastic bag. While this is almost universal because it’s happened to me at several stores, clerks often forget about the discount, and the ten cents is more of a token of appreciation than a real incentive. Ask your clerk about this discount, which will do more to create awareness than save you a lot of cash.
A few stores in my area have started collecting used, clean plastic bags for recycling. Although they rarely pay you for the bags you bring in, you get to sleep well knowing your bags will be recycled. Make sure your bags are clean and dry before you drop them off – one lonely onion skin can contaminate a whole batch of recycled bags. If you don’t see a collection bin to place your used bags in, try asking the store manager about the program. The store stands to make a good bit of money from the endeavor.
Wal-Mart, whom every environmentalist loves to hate, has undertaken a similar program, carting tons of plastic bags by semi to their headquarters in Arkansas for recycling, which is actually making them a decent profit. Wal-Mart also sponsors schools and communities to have bag-recycling collection competitions, with monetary prizes for winning schools. Look for more information at kidsrecyclingchallenge.com to see how you can start a collection in your school.
Plastic Bag Assassination Strategies – The Stick
Some communities, however, are employing the stick. Most successfully, Ireland instituted a 33-cent tax per bag on plastic bags in 2002, with revenues going towards environmental cleanups. Astonishingly, plastic bag use dropped almost 94% in just five months, according to the BBC.
Irish environmental minister Martin Cullen said that the effect of the program was a paradigm shift wherein customers who used their own bags were no longer crazy hippies, but progressive consumers. The plastic bag turned from symbol of urban landscape into symbol of environmental destruction. You don’t have to wait to be cool, though. You can start setting the example in your community. If you’re really ambitious, you can start writing to your member of congress to convince them to consider a tax scheme in your area.
Many cities in America, and companies who do business in America, have tried versions of the stick. In New York City, companies who offer plastic grocery bags must also offer recycling services for those bags. Whole Foods Market, purveyor of natural foods, announced earlier this year that they’ll stop offering plastic bags altogether. Only cloth or recycled paper will be available to Whole Foods customers.
If you are a retailer, or work in retail, consider getting your company to implement one of these schemes. Not only can you save money by using less plastic bags, you can interact with your customers more by asking them if they need a bag, and encouraging them to use their own when shopping at your store. Nothing is more discouraging to customers who want to start doing the eco-friendly thing, only to be met with suspicion and stubbornness in local stores.