Plastic bags have become a staple of modern life. First introduced in the 1970’s, they became the standard in the 1980’s. Worldwide, we use about 500 BILLION to 1 TRILLION plastic shopping bags a year .It’s estimated that here in the United States we use about 84 BILLION bags a year. They littler roadsides, flutter from trees, clog catch basins and ultimately end up in landfills and the ocean. Marine life suffers, too: each year over 100,000 whales, turtles, birds and fish die of strangulation or starvation from eating or being caught up in plastic bag litter. There’s even the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, a floating island of trash: most of it plastic! Plastic bags come from petroleum, so every one that’s used requires Middle East oil. The Earth is being destroyed and depleted for our convenience.
Retailers like Wal-Mart have jumped on the bandwagon and are selling reusable bags. While a noble effort, consider where these bags are coming from. Noting Wal-Mart’s reliance on cheap goods from China, I’d hardly think that these bags ARE fair trade. They first had the black bags which were completely made out of recycled plastic. Then they switched to the blue ones but they are only made from about 50% recycled plastic, and last half as long! Leave it to Wal-Mart to LOOK ‘green’ but not be.
Australia, Italy, Ireland, Mumbai (Bombay), and others like Taiwan have begun to charge for plastic bags. Here in the United States, several localities have either started charging for plastic bags or banned them outright. San Francisco has banned the use while Washington DC is imposing a 5 cent fee. Of course, some residents are fuming and the oil lobby and retailer’s association are against it.
Chico bags are a light, easily packable way to reduce your plastic bag consumption. Many of you forget your bags. Chico bags are easily packed into a purse or for you guys, a knapsack. Mine are in my purse all the time. I’ve loaded them the 14oz cans of cat food plenty of times., easily topping over 20 pounds! The good news is — they are really RECYCLABLE! The company that makes them will take them back and rework them into something else!
Each of us on this Earth must make a choice every day to save resources. Whether its turning off lights, buying a solar charger, fixing leaking faucets, switching to a composting toilet or buying a more fuel efficient car: everything — EVERYTHING — we do does have an effect!
Tags: Chico Bags, composting toilets, Fair Trade, plastic bag ban, plastic bag use, reusable plastic bags, solar, solar chargers, Wal-Mart