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According to the Sierra Club Insider

Here's the article



Somewhere in the northern Pacific floats a non-biodegradable petrochemical blob that's twice the size of Texas. Much of this deadly mess originated when someone innocently took home their shopping in a plastic bag.

In the U.S. alone, we throw away 100 billion plastic bags each year -- the equivalent of 12 million barrels of oil. Yikes!

I think this is the audio link below for it - I hope it works.

http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=mFxJGDGQPLNO2RtqZzFsaA..

Per BailOut's suggestion, I'm going to put this in the Environmental forum.

I think someone posted a news item on this a few weeks ago...the "Gyre." It's pretty disgusting.

Why must environmental articles always go way overboard in stating a problem.

First we heard that plastic bottles were enemy #1 a couple of weeks ago based on 1.5 million bbls per year or 0.02% of annual US oil.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/in-the-news/t-bottled-water-is-public-enemy-no-1-due-to-fuel-consumption-and-emissions-to-produce-6208.html

At 12 million bbls per year plastic bags are 0.15% of annual US oil.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/environmental/t-polymers-are-forever-6210.html

The polymers are forever article pegged the gyre in the ocean problem correctly to the shipping industry dumping million of pounds of plastic into the ocean annually.

Now this new article wants us to believe that this mass in the ocean was created by bags blowing out of garbage trucks?

Since plastic bags don't degrade a landfill is the perfect place to dispose of them, look at it as sequestering co2 instead of putting it in the atmosphere.

Once again government tries to fix a real or perceived problem with a seemingly simple solution: BAN IT. I doubt there will be a mass switch to reusable hemp bags as is hoped. Paper bags will have their own negative impacts until the government finally decides to ban all bags.:rolleyes:

When my grocery store starts charging me 23 cents per bag I'll be bringing my old bags back for reuse. I already save them for use in my small trash cans, and trips to Costco.

Talk about overboard! A "gyre" is just a big place where the currents make an eddy. Even if there were a lot of trash bags all over the place, it's hardly a solid blob. More like a drift of garbage.

Personally, I'm not sure what the right solution to any of this is. When I was in college they stopped putting groceries in paper bags because they were bad for the environment. Now plastic is bad. I suppose you could use reusable bags, but I just don't see it happening (not to mention the fact that you'd need to devote most of the world's textiles toward making them).

Maybe in a few years we'll hear the checkers at our market asking whether we want our groceries in "wicker or suitcases"?

Actually I believe most of the plastic bags today are biodegradable made from mostly organic sources (soybeans etc), although they may still use a small portion of oil based product. However most of these biodegradable bags will never degrade. Why? Because they usually require a combination of air, water/moisture, and most importantly UV (i.e. sunlight) and the process takes several weeks to several months. In the landfill they are quickly buried and won't degrade as rapidly as they were designed.

Now what I'm saying here is based on some articles from at least 10 years ago...in that time, have we not been able to get rid of the rest of the crude oil products? Have we not changed the design to break down with just a few months of anerobic bateria exposure? If someone really knows, I'd love to hear.

Got re-usable grocery bags at Krogers yesterday. At a buck a piece they were the cheapest I've found by a good margin. Keeping them in my car for easy access.

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I suppose you could use reusable bags, but I just don't see it happening (not to mention the fact that you'd need to devote most of the world's textiles toward making them).

Maybe in a few years we'll hear the checkers at our market asking whether we want our groceries in "wicker or suitcases"?

Why would we ever need to devote most of the world's textiles to reusable bags? I would guess most people already own bags they could use. It's not like grocery stores would be giving out cloth bags like they do paper and plastic. Not to mention we're not using most of the world's oil/paper for the grocery bags that are currently being used.

I don't see why it is so hard to bring your own bags, why wait until the store you shop at starts charging for bags? I've been using reusable bags when I go shopping, and the hardest part is remembering to bring the bags. Just get in the habit, and keep a bag in the car for unexpected trips.

Decline a bag when you can just as easily carry an item in your hands, it's almost surprising how often the opportunity arises. I remember watching a video about this when I was a kid. It seems like we would have made more progress by now.

I just finished an afternoon's worth of shopping with one reusable 100% natural cotton, fair wage, fair labor shopping bag. I went to several stores getting only a few items that I carried sans bag to the car, and then finally the grocery store where all of my items filled up about half the bag, then I piled the rest of the day's shopping on top and carried it up to my dorm. The bags are much sturdier than either paper or plastic, or god forbid paper IN plastic as many insist upon. Plus they don't create excess waste once I get the items home.

After working in a grocery store and seeing all of the waste that is created by bags that aren't filled to their capacity because they are too weak, I couldn't in good conscience use anything but reusable bags. I just wish stores in the midwest would start charging for bags, or rewarding those who don't take a store's consumable bags (whose cost really adds up) home with them.

God bless both of you for using reusable bags!!! :flag:

What's really infuriating is when stores WON'T let you NOT use the throwaway bags. Even though my family's daycare center reuses the bags for diaper duty, I try and reduce my use of them as much as possible.

In particular, I tell the cashier NOT to bag any items where only 1 item per bag fits or its just as easy to palm them. The list includes milk jugs, large industrial food cans, the large stacks of disposable plates we're required to use (washing the number of plates we use to health dept. specs would require a large capital outlay and expansion), 2 liter bottles, etc...

There is nothing more frustrating than seeing a bagger put a 10lb can in a flimsy plastic bag AFTER I told them not to. If I take it out, they throw away the still-usable bag and won't even drop it in the recycling box.

My girlfriend and I have both purchased several reusable bags. We take them into the grocery store and other stores as well. They're very strong ,stylish, hold lots of stuff and they only cost one dollar. We feel good using them- the cashiers do give us a strange look sometimes when we say no bag please-:)

When we are buying refrigerated or frozen items we usually bring a cooler. It saves on the bag as well as some rechilling of the food at home.

I guess my biggest peave about the stupid plastic bags are the number of bags used. I'll come home and have a dozen bags from a light amount of shopping. Each bag will only have 2 or 3 items each. I think some dunce must have complained that a bag was too full or something. I don't know what to do with all of them, I must have a few hundred under the kitchen sink.

I really hate that we've become such a disposable society. Everyone seems to insist on having something be NEW. New house, new car, new everything. I bought a $40 shirt for $3 at a thrift store. Why, cuz I'm cheap. I think when more NEW things become cost prohibitive, more people will change.

BTW, I think the deadliest item at the grocery store is (rat) poison, because if used properly it kills and if used improperly it also kills.

<<There is nothing more frustrating than seeing a bagger put a 10lb can in a flimsy plastic bag AFTER I told them not to. If I take it out, they throw away the still-usable bag and won't even drop it in the recycling box.>>

I'm watchful of this....and if it accidentally happens, i just laugh and say 'oh! I just can't bear the though of unnecessarily using a plastic bag....could you please make sure this gets used?" and they *always* hang it bag on their bag dispenser.

<<I doubt there will be a mass switch to reusable hemp bags as is hoped. Paper bags will have their own negative impacts until the government finally decides to ban all bags.>>

I hope it happens. SanFran took the move to ban plastic bags....i'd be thrilled if the move was made to ban them all. It's ridiculous that this kind of waste is so acceptable to people when there is an easy cheap alternative (ie bringing your own bag).

When shopping with my sis in italy, i noticed that virtually everyone had their own bag/bags.

k

I can wholeheartedly recommend getting yourself a foldable box (http://www.zmplastics.com/foldable_plastic_box.htm). They take up little space when folded and can transport amazing amounts of groceries.

I see a lot of plastic bags in the ocean. They are a hazzard for wildlife as well for the outboard engines (at $23,000 a pop). We use reuseable bag. Some places have banned plastic bags.

My local grocery store is also giving incentives to use reusable bags. One store chain is giving you 0.05 cents back for every reusable bag you use and the other is giving 50 of the stores points on its card.