Posted on 01/26/2008 11:53:56 AM PST by JACKRUSSELL
Eradicating those unsightly plastic bags that hang in trees and clog landfills may not be in the bag just yet but the idea is reaching a fever pitch in Canada and around the world.
On Tuesday, Whole Foods Market, the world's largest natural-food retailer, announced it would stop giving out disposable plastic bags at the checkout counters. All of the retailer's 270 U.S., Canadian and U.K. stores aim to be free of bags by Earth Day on April 22 of this year. And earlier this month China launched a countrywide ban barring shop owners to hand out single-use bags.
Slowly ideas are changing about the need for plastic bags. But could they go the way of the VCR or at the very least become taboo like cigarettes?
"There is a shift in perception," says Tracey Saxby, a 30-year-old environmentalist who lives half of the year in Rossland, B.C., and the other half in Whistler, B.C. "We just don't need them."
Saxby, an Australian native, was one of the first people in North America to champion a ban in her adopted home of Rossland.
About 10 years ago, the budding environmentalist worked in a retail store in Australia, where incidentally the federal environment minister is currently seeking to ban all ultra-thin plastic bags by the end of the year.
She said she would question why she had to give customers a bag even for the tiniest item. It was then on a trip to Coles Bay in Tasmania that she became really passionate about doing something about the problem.
"It was really cool what was happening there because it's such a tourist attraction and all of these thousands of tourists who came to see the national park were also witnessing a town without plastic bags and really seeing it work, she said by phone from her family home in Brisbane.
The village of Coles Bay, which attracts about 25,000 tourists a year, became the first community in Australia to ban the bags in 2003. The move was copied by dozens more communities in Australia and across the globe.
So Saxby brought the idea home. She took the idea to city council last year in Rossland.
"I said Rossland, let's do this and the whole town got excited," she said. "There was an overwhelming fervour."
The town vied to be the first town in North America to go bag free, but that honour landed in the lap of the small community of Leaf Rapids, Man., on April 2, 2007. With just over 500 residents, city officials handed out more than 5,000 free cloth bags. Leaf Rapids is about 980 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.
San Francisco became the first U.S. city to adopt a ban in March after efforts to impose a tax failed, while New Jersey is seeking to be the first state to phase out bags after government implemented a bill in November.
Large global cities are also jumping on board. London's 33 municipal authorities are pushing for an outright ban on plastic bags, and city council in New York trying to pass laws to bar the so-called white pollution.
"It's happening everywhere now," says Saxby, "Vancouver, Toronto, Whistler - all these places are looking at options and are committed to reducing or eliminating them. Reusable bags are everywhere."
The idea is gaining worldwide momentum. There are now restrictions or bans in Ireland, Taiwan, Kenya, Uganda, Zanzibar and South Africa, among others.
The chief administrator in Leaf Rapids, Martin Van Osch, says the whole community is willing to use the cloth bags to do their shopping. Local businesses could be fined $1,000 for ignoring the ban, but no fines have been levied.
"It's a good thing because people are learning that plastic bags are not free. There's a price," says Saxby.
It's estimated that plastic bags take about 1,000 years to break-down in the environment.
The tricky part of the equation for many Canadians is the perennial question: plastic or paper? But environmentalists say using paper isn't the answer either. Opponents say they use too many trees, create more greenhouse gas emissions in manufacturing and take up more space in landfills.
Environmentalists argue that consumers must look at other options.
"We wouldn't oppose a ban, but we currently propose a tax," said the leader of Canada's national Green Party Elizabeth May, noting a federal ban is highly unlikely in Canada.
"We need to convince consumers that, on so many levels, these are not essential products," she says. "It's a created false need."
Saxby agrees. "It was only in the '70s that we even started to use these plastic bags."
Tips to reduce plastic bag use:
Buy cloth shopping bags available at most grocery stores.
If you are only buying a couple of items, consider carrying them.
Consolidate purchases into one bag.
Place fruit and veggies directly into your basket.
Purchase lightweight mesh or cotton fruit and veggie bags to use for little things like peas or beans.
Avoid double bagging.
If an item already has a handle don't put it in another bag.
Ask the store for produce boxes that you can re-use and then recycle.
On a bike? Take a back-pack with you.
What can I use as a garbage bag?
Compost organic material. Recycle as much as possible. Rinse your bin and reuse.
Re-use newspaper to line your garbage bin: Save a few sheets of newspaper each week to wrap your rubbish or line your garbage bin. This helps minimize mess and is a good alternative to plastic garbage bin liners.
Purchase biodegradable bags. While biodegradable bags are not the solution (we need to reduce our waste first!) they are a compromise if you feel you do need to line your bin.
What can I use to pick up dog poop?
Re-use plastic bags that you get as packaging. For example, bread bags, or paper mushroom bags.
Buy a dog-composting unit that you can install in a corner of your yard.
Ask your local pet store to order a dog composting unit for you.
Re-use plastic bags that you get as packaging. For example, bread bags, or paper mushroom bags.
What morons. Dog owners would have to eat one or two loaves of bread a day to take care of one dog's poop. Then we'd get the obesity-whackos fired up again.
And guess who leaves the biggest mess. Conservatives clean up after themselves.
HA.....I “retrained” a kid once......was walking by the car when she threw something out the open window of the parked car she was sitting in.....went back, threw it back in the window, and said, quit throwing your litter in my neighborhood.....she, and her little brother with her were QUITE surprised.
There is some commonsense in what she is saying. For most of my life we got along just fine with brown paper bags of varying sizes including little ones for little items. On the other hand plastic bags get re-used at my house for all kinds of purposes so to call them 'single-use' is just dumb.
To me it's like the old styrofoam McDonald's boxes--If they want to get rid of them that bad it's OK with me. I really don't worry about it.
Very true.
Indeed now that I have read this article I am considering hoarding them so I can continue to use them. It is fun!
There aren’t enough mental hospitals for all these folks.
Paper bags are useless.
It’s like cutting down forests to produce newspapers.
LOL
I already do some of the things they suggest. And I didn’t need them to nag me to do it.
I think the only thing more annoying than plastic bags are the teenage baggers at grocery stores who put 3 itmes in a bag and then decide the bag is full. That’s actually why I bought some of the cloth bags — they hold more and make transporting the items from the SUV to the home (where I left the air conditioner on while I was out) easier.
You could always bring the dog poop inside and flush it.
I always use paper bags, but I may start using plastic just out of spite.
In 20 years, they’ll go back plastic, another 20 years, back to paper, so on, so on.
Bring your own bags? Yeah, I’m aware of the weight, size and dimensions of every item I might decide I want at the grocery store.
Yeah, I’ve seen plastic bags in trees. Never in my neighborhood. Generally these are the same neighborhoods where graffiti is scrawled everywhere, half the houses have aluminum foil in the windows and no grass in the front yard because that 20 ft. walk from the driveway is just too damn far. Like I care about some bags in their trees.
It’s stories such as this that make me want to go out to the country side, commune with nature, and burn a pile of old tires.
“What are we going to pick the dog’s poop with then?”
TP. But only One square.
“Place fruit and veggies directly into your basket.”
The basket that has had the dirty diaper kid sitting in it, the bird pooping on it in the lot and the overspray of months or years of spittle, sneezing and coughing over it? It’s bad enough that the fruit has been exposed to filty people for a day or two on the shelves. Rather than wash the food before eating it, it would have to be pasturized.
Thank you, everyone — your witty comments have calmed me down.
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