I am standing at the check out counter. I've just come into the store to pick up a few things, when I realize I forgot my reusable bags (as usual). But I can easily carry these items in my hand when I pay and walk out, or I can put them in my purse (it's big enough these days). However, I am standing there busily swiping my card to pay and, before I can tell the cashier I don't need it, he puts my 3 little items in a big plastic bag. I quickly tell him I actually don't need a bag, apologize, and take my items out- handing the bag back to him. He throws it away!
I go to CVS the other day to buy chapstick, a tiny little tube of Burt's Bees. Again, I am busy paying for it when I look up and see the cashier has put this item, no bigger than my pinky, into a heaping plastic bag!
I have officially found my pet peeve.
For the past year and a half now, everywhere I go I am paying attention to how many bags we use for everything. How every store automatically gives you a bag (and puts about 3 items in per bag, so that you walk out with 10 plastic bags) without asking if you actually need it. What have we come to when we think we need a bag for everything- even as ridiculous as one tube of chapstick! Have we lost the capability to carry things? Do we just enjoy walking through the parking lot swinging that bag around with our one item in it? Or is it such an embedded habit of our society to get a plastic bag every single time you buy something, no matter what or how big it is, that we are not even thinking about what all this plastic waste means?
I say the latter. We are so conditioned in so many consumer habits that we are unaware of the consequences. At least we have been for a long time, but are now finally waking up. Here is why we should be aware of our plastic bag use:
*Each year, an estimated 4 to 5 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute.
Billions end up as litter each year.*According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.(Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)
*Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade - breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
*Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.
*Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation. As part of Clean Up Australia Day, in one day nearly 500,000 plastic bags were collected.
*Windblown plastic bags are so prevalent in Africa that a cottage industry has sprung up harvesting bags and using them to weave hats, and even bags. According to the BBC, one group harvests 30,000 per month.
*430,000 gallons of oil is needed to produce 100 million nondegradable plastic bags.
And here's how we can reduce our consumption of plastic (and paper) bags:
1. Start using reusable shopping bags. And if you can't seem to remember bringing them, keep trying! You'll get in the habit eventually. A good way to make yourself remember is to keep buying new ones when you realize you forgot them again at the checkout. After buying 20 bags at a dollar a pop, you'll start remembering to bring them in!
2. Refuse a bag. Unless going on your bulk shop for groceries, you probably don't really need a bag. Cashiers are programmed to give you one and don't always stop to think or bother to ask if you need one. If you don't need a bag, don't take one.
3. Reuse plastic bags you have accumulated as garbage liners.
4. Start using more compact reusable bags (like our simple organic totes) The big, bulky canvass bags are easier to forget or inconvenient to carry out on errands. Smaller, compact bags are small enough to stash in your purse, jacket, backpack, car, etc. so one is always handy.
5. Try to get stores to offer cash credits if you bring in your own bags. Luckily, stores in different cities (San Francisco) and different countries (Ireland) are beginning to ban or charge for plastic bags. Research these kinds of solutions and push for this to happen in your area!
6. Open your eyes to how many bags you consume: keep count. For instance, if you have a giant plastic bag holding plastic bags in your closet, take 5 minutes and count how many you have. (I counted a few hundred back in the day when I had an impressive stash) OR, count how many plastic and paper bags you go through in a week.
7. Spread the word to wake up others. Make a statement with our "Just Say NO to Plastic Bags" organic cotton tote or t-shirt.
8. Cut down on produce bags by bringing your own or reusing them. (Or like I tell my mom, "Do you really need a produce bag for that one cucumber?")
And as for me and my pet peeve, I hope one day it will be protocol for all store employees to ASK BEFORE BAGGING. Until then, maybe I'll begin wearing a pin that says "Please Ask Me If I Need A Bag First". (Yes I would wear it on my shirt all the time, I'm a total geek, I know.)
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