Americans are a high-consumption lot. A lot of the consumption I understand: food, toys, and travel can make people happy.
But I do not understand plastic grocery bags. They break, the handles are usually poorly designed, and they multiply ridiculously fast.
I have been a beneficiary of some of my friends' bag consumption, as these bags found a second life picking up after The Dog. But since C. gave me a gift of some degradable dog-size bags, I've been frowning a little more at the stash of bags in my closet.
Apparently, one-use paper grocery bags consume more energy than do one-use plastic bags, even when made of recycled paper. All my paper grocery bags, by which I mean about 3 per month, are used twice: once to bring home groceries, once to hold recycling. So I'm feeling ok about those.
Plastic bags, though, seem to have a host of other issues. Greenpeace has noted concerns about plastic recycling, though the article is a bit dated. The North Coast Journal in California has reported dangerous conditions for workers overseas who recycle American plastics. Mother Jones has reported that the plastics industry isn't all that keen on using recycled materials.
On the upside, H-E-B grocery stores here in Texas seem to actually recycle plastic bags, turning them into new bags that they sell.
However, what's the point in having all that disposable stuff made in the first place? As definitive proof of evil goes, the above is a little thin, but I think we all realize that making stuff uses up resources and creates waste, a lot of which is pretty nasty. How much energy, petroleum, and toxicity do we think is a good amount for the dubious convenience of toting around objects in plastic bags?
If you make just one New Year's Resolution, please consider this one: buy 5 canvas grocery bags, and keep them in your car. If you take them in the house and don't bring them back out to the car when they're unloaded, you won't have them with you when you need them. When you get a small item, say "I don't need a bag, please." Just take it and your receipt and go. When you go into a store to buy several items, take a bag with you and follow a similar procedure, placing your items in your bag. I have never been stopped by security either for carrying my own bag in a store or for leaving a store with an unbagged object if I was also holding the receipt.
I'm planning to have kids someday, and I'd like them to be able to live on this planet. Mars just isn't ready yet. And I promise The Dog won't mind.
