Sierra Club's recent edition of the Insider tells the tale of possibly the deadliest item in your grocery store: the plastic grocery bag. The bags--most of which are made from petroleum--do not biodegrade, and the claim is that many (I mean MANY) end up blowing into and collecting in the ocean--to the tune of a blob of bags in one area twice the size of Texas . This area of the Pacific Ocean, called the Northern Pacific Gyre, has amassed these bags and fragments thereof that just keep swirling in a giant vortex of ocean currents. Estimates are that in the U.S. we throw away 100 billion plastic bags each year--which amounts to a whopping 12 million barrels of oil! I think it's time to BYOB, as suggested by Orli Cotel in her Sierra Club radio interview (Listen to the interview at http://sierraclub.typepad.com/insider/2007/09/the-deadliest-i.html).
I have been carrying canvas bags to the grocery and dime stores for about 2 years now. I bought a couple of bags and had some leftover canvas from an art project that was heavy-duty enough to stitch into bags of various sizes (with handles). I have also picked up a couple of teacher tote bags at garage sales that work mighty fine.
There has been a blue bag stuck in my neighbor's tree for months now, just flappin' in the wind. I see them stuck in fence rows when I drive down the highway--acting as though they were meant to be there, right alongside the waving tall grasses and cottonwood leaves. The least the manufacturers could do would be to make them in colors that blended with nature. But, then, I suppose we wouldn't be as likely to see the advertised store name on the bag, flying through the air, destined for the first thing to snag it up. I could've sworn I saw a crow wearing a Wal-Mart bag as a raincoat yesterday . . .
Check this page to see an animation of how the bags get caught up in ocean currents: http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/the-expedition/news/trashing-our-oceans/ocean_pollution_animation
1 comment:
I have a grocery bag an art teacher gave me that was made from 30 grocery bags crocheted together. Now that's recycling.
It frustrates me that the plastic bags are so weak that they barely hold anything. My canvas bag has carried home 40 lbs of groceries.
Why is it that one gallon of milk gets its own bag? It has a HANDLE!!
I love my tote bags.
Post a Comment