“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” — Leo Tolstoy
“I keep my green bag in the car, but I never remember to use it.”
I’m on my way into my local Walgreen’s doing one of those late night shopping runs for a couple of things I probably don’t need and an employee hanging outside for his break has spied the reusable bag under my arm. All I can think is: Why the hell would talk to me when I’m dressed like this and trying to pretend I’m invisible? But I figure a response of some sort is needed, so I say, “It takes training.”
Now that’s a short sentence to change tone right in the middle of, but I tried. My reply started out arrogant, got in the vicinity of good-natured, but ended up sounding like I was drunk. But what I said is true; I had to train myself to remember my reusable bags. If I’m in a situation where I have to use a plastic bag, I imagine someone plunging a knife into my heart. Dramatic maybe, but it works. This is followed by muttering to myself like Woody Allen for the rest of the day. “I’m a horrible person, that’s what I am. I do nothing but kill the planet. That’s what I am. A planet killer. I see a planet, I just have to squash it. Bag lover, that’s me. Too bad marrying a plastic bag is illegal in most states, cause I’m a bag lover.”
I know many people are using reusable bags these days because I see you out and about. For those of you who haven’t trained yourself yet, I’ll leave you to whatever method works best for you. I do have a few tidbits that might help you along though.
Success stories abound. World Ark, Heifer International’s magazine, recently reported that a 33-cent tax on plastic bags in Ireland spawned a social taboo. Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped by 90 percent, and people were looked down upon if they used them. Considering the country had an consumption of 1.2 billion bags annually, that is quite an impact. In a delicious “Special Report on Service” issue last month, Time magazine spotlighted Rebecca Hosking who persuaded shopkeepers in her hometown of Modbury, England to ban plastic bags. Rebecca was moved to do this after visiting Midway Island in the North Pacific where she encountered hundreds of albatross carcasses with plastic bags lodged in their stomachs. Because of her efforts, more than 80 other United Kingdom towns have announced plans for similar bans.
When the numbers are added up the environmental scarring of our plastic bags is daunting. Here are just a few facts:
- As a society, we us more than 500 billion plastic bags each year, or almost 1 million a minute.
- It takes approximately 60-100 million barrels of oil to make our plastic bags each year.
- Our plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food.
- Most plastic bags take more than 400 years to biodegrade. (That means in the 25 years since we’ve been using them, not a single plastic bag has biodegraded.)
- We are recycling no more than 3 percent of our plastic bags.
Reusable bags have become prevalent because stores see the benefit of keeping them near the cash register as an impulse buy. Theoretically, if we all stop using plastic bags, it save the store money, presumably those savings would be passed down to us. The reusable bags also make nifty advertisements for the store. I like to think that making the world a better place factors in there somewhere too.
There are many anti-plastic-bag related resources on the internet, but one I highly recommend you visit is ReusableBags.com. Here, among other things, you’ll find reusable bags of all shapes and sizes from shopping to sandwich. One gadget that’s a favorite in our house is the “plastic bag dryer” ($16.99), a rack that you can use to let resealable bags dry. As a birthday presents, I bought my other half Brendan the “Activist Kit” ($9.99) with an organic cotton t-shirt, buttons, and stickers all declaring “Plastic Bags Blow.” The site also has lots of facts to help keep you focused on the task at hand.
Who knows? Maybe next time my friend from outside Walgreen’s goes to purchase something, he’ll think back on a brief encounter with an apparently drunk guy, and remember to use his green bag.
