Banning the Plastic Shopping Bag California Leads the Way by Dale Y, The Green Guy

Even here at MyGreenClick, there have been comments and questions about what to do with plastic bags. Although they are easily recycled, the problem with plastic bags is a lot of people throw them away. Throwing away a plastic bag and having it end up in a landfill means it will never biodegrade. Also, these thin and light plastic bags can easily take off, literally, by a gust of wind and end up sailing into the air, only to land in a tree, a marsh, next to roadways and generally become an eyesore as well as a nuisance. The California problem goes even deeper. Any plastic bag blown out into the ocean can look like a type of jellyfish on which sea turtles like to dine. Turtles attempt to eat these wayward bags and either get tangled in them and suffocate, or ingest them and choke to death on the indigestible plastic. There is even an island off the coast of California—known as Gilligans Island, by the way—made up completely of used and discarded plastic bags and other plastic garbage, which is already twice the size of the continental US and growing! The Los Angeles Times calls this entire plastic bag issue “An environmental atrocity” and I agree with them completely. IKEA has been charging a nickel every time it bags your goodies in a plastic bag. Just this little act alone has cut plastic bag use in their stores by 91%. The reality is that every store chain should at least do that. To that end, there is a law pending in California to ban the use of plastic bags by the year 2012 which will essentially force people into bringing their own reusable or recyclable bags into stores, and do what most of the MyGreenClick community does already, right?. California is leading the way here in the states, but the first plastic bag ban came from Ireland in 2002. When that happened and within a few weeks, plastic bag usage dropped a whopping 94%, much like the IKEA number as stated above. It still isn’t enough, but these results show a tax or a pay-per fee has a dramatic effect on plastic bag use. The world uses 42 billion plastic bags per month, and not only do a lot of these bags end up polluting landfills, but also it also takes petroleum to manufacture them. For that issue alone, it’s time for every state to get on the California bandwagon and ban these landfill pests. There are too many alternatives to plastic bags-see the MyGreenClick store if you don’t believe me. It’s time to get the plastic bag out of our lives, but most importantly, out of our landfills ASAP!

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Comments

Just curious...what about trash bags??? We all put our trash in a plastic trash bag, tie it up and throw it away. What about those? How do we replace those?
Regarding the plastic bags . . . most Americans only want quick, easy, simple convenience . . . In a recent 'Green focused' Newsweek publication back in April, there was an advertisement from BASF a chemical company regarding Ecoflex, a biodegradable plastic that can be used in for bags and packaging. It's shelf life is one year and it then it will decompose in compost w/in a few weeks. Definately an alternative for those who are NOT into being Earth friendly.
wonderful article.
It's nice to hear that some companies and countries are doing their part to help our planet.

Johanna has a point. . . how do we replace our everyday trash bags?

Anyone have any suggestions?
There are also websites for crafts with plastic bags. You can fuse them together and make tote bags, sleeves for your water bottle or cell phone. Or you can cut them into strips and make "yarn" to use for crochet.
Try Craftzine.com
My Los Angeles Times paper comes wrapped in plastic, and I have asked them to please stop doing this. I always use canvas shopping bags. I hope Los Angeles will soon outlaw plastic and paper bags. All the stores sell canvas bags (practically free), so there is no reason to keep using plastic and paper.
Paper Bag manufacturers need to start producing shopping bags that have strong handles attached to them.

Wendy's offers these type of bags to their customers with large orders.
What is your position on paper bags.

I have always said, "it takes longer to produce a plastic bag, from oil, than it takes to grow a tree." Am I being too simplistic?
Ecosmart plastic trash bags are the answer for those of you wanting to use plastic, yet still being green. Keep checking here for my full product test of these remarkable and totally biodegradable plastic bags. They are pretty neat.
if there were a recyling center that paid you 2-3 cents per bag you would get more people attention. hate to say it "but money talk". if they did this I'd bet you would see alot more recyling
at the recyling place I go to, people recyling milk jugs juice bottle and other Non-CRV plastic I think they get 20-30 cents less then the CRV bottle to some people you cant just talk environmental you have to talk economics thats the only green that some people know
Since I signed clicked that beautiful green button my world has changed. My childeren love to read the artical on new and better ways to keep our planet clean and safe. I there a kid site for them to express their ideas and concerns? I beleave that the plastic bags should go. What about busy people who do not remember to bring their canvas bags at times. (canvas bags aren't cheap.)
i would like to see the whole country follow california idea. we just came back from sna deigo and we love what they are doing with there plastic at all the parks great job

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