Conservation Efforts Start At Home With Reusable Grocery Bags!
Reusable grocery bags
Those making simple but far-reaching conservation efforts, like adopting reusable grocer bags, are growing in number.
Whether it’s being environmentally conscious, recycling guru moms, or even fashionistas – people are embracing it from all walks of life and all ages.
Some government agencies are even mandating it!
Today’s guest article gives lots of examples, and is a really good read.
Take A Stand For The Planet and Go With Reusable Grocery Bags
It is time for BYOB! Yes, bring your own shopping bag! It’s crazy to think about the amount of purchasing we historically carry out now in America and world-wide. Whether it’s frequent visits into the supermarket as we keep our kitchen’s stocked for amazing meals and tasty treats or those sometimes dreaded (yet skillful) “6 bags on each arm” walks through the local mall, it all adds up to a whole lot of unnecessary waste. Probably the most blatant examples of this waste is disposable grocery bags.
An estimated 100 billion plastic shopping bags are used every year in the USA, according to the Wall-Street Journal. Most plastic bags wind up in landfills and the rest time and again end up in rivers, ponds, lakes, streams or in the sea, where animals can ingest or become tangled in them. Bearing in mind the amount of shopping bags that are consumed and wasted each year, the time is now to spread the word in regards to the constructive benefits of green reusable shopping bags. After all, most of us desire to give back to our families, friends and communities as often as possible.
Creating a BYOB approach in our individual shopping habits is a simple way to do exactly that. If we are able to raise awareness at this time, the positive impact for the environment is incalculable - for this year and well into the future. Several metropolitan areas have already made gradual but significant progress in promoting the usage of eco bags in recent years. Encouraging consumers with plastic and paper bag bans, savings at the register for reusable bag usage and tax motivations are a few to speak of.
Right here in America, the San Jose City Council only just approved among the nation’s strictest bans on plastic and paper shopping bags. It is a gigantic victory for the Bay Area, that has 1 million plastic bags per year accumulating in and along the San Francisco Bay. San Jose becomes the most recent bay area town to endorse some kind of ban on disposable shopping bags; some others comprise of San Francisco and Palo Alto. Tracy Seipel of the San Jose Mercury News reported that it was in fact ONE man who really jump-started the ban, another impressive example of the power of one person. Here’s a an excerpt:
“While visiting his sister-in-law in Taipei, (Kansen) Chu (elected to San Jose city council in 2007) went grocery shopping and was surprised to get charged for plastic grocery bags. The next day, he brought his own cloth bags back to the store. “I guess the question,” said Chu, “was, ‘Why not San Jose?’ ” He began a conversation with the city’s environmental services staff, which later moved to council committee discussions.
Save the Bay’s 4th yearly report on the most garbage-strewn places in the area further demonstrates the need for BYOB. The 50-year-old environmental advocacy group focused on 10 particular bay-area sites where approximately 15,000 plastic bags were recovered in a single day last year in their statement. Here’s an extract of an article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Kelly Zito.
According to (Save the Bay’s) research, Californians use about 19 billion plastic bags each year, 3.8 million in the Bay Area. The average use time for the bags – made using about 12 million barrels of oil each year in the United States – is about 12 minutes. In addition to the hundreds of years it can take for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill, the bags also force downtime when fed into traditional recycling equipment. Typically, the bags get wound into conveyor belts or gears and must be cut out by hand.
Ten US cities have banned plastic bags thus far, five within the past year. Even Mexico City enacted a ban on plastic shopping bags, which went into effect in August. The city of 20 million now faces the realities of effective enforcement, which is not simple when the Mexico City Chamber of Commerce estimates there are actually 35,000 vendors in Mexico City’s downtown area alone.
Bans on plastic bags aren’t the only effective means to scale back dangerous waste caused by disposable bags. PlasTaxes, which tax consumers at the register for using plastic bags when shopping, were first launched by the Irish. John Roach of National Geographic reported in 2008 about the worldwide momentum that’s been building from the time when Ireland instilled a PlasTax in 2003. The Irish confirmed they could decrease plastic bag utilization by 90% or more. Momentum is growing internationally, particularly in America. From Washington, DC to Edmonds, WA to North Pole, AK, communities and governments are spurring a global trend to cut back the harmful environmental effects of disposable shopping bags. In the great state of Hawaii, the governing body is currently considering a bill to ban single-use plastic bags (SUP), or to ascertain a small fee make use of SUP bags.
Even key retail stores like Target and CVS are taking action by enacting discounts at the register for customers who choose to BYOB or simply carry-out their items without a bag. For those naysayers, it’s convenient to pay no heed to recent momentum in reducing disposable bag waste. But to several, the wide-spread adoption of eco-friendly green bags is inevitable. Look at the way smoking is becoming taboo in America. Indoor smoking bans have caught on like wild-fire. In the same way, who’s to say using disposable bags won’t turn out to be taboo one day within the (hopefully near) future? The use of eco-friendly recycled grocery bags is unquestionably picking up steam. Our personal decisions to bring our recycled shopping bags can go a whole lot farther than we think. That’s what BYOB is all about.
Naturally, plastic and paper bags should be recycled and it’s crucial to bear in mind a bunch of large retailers including Albertsons and Wal-Mart will recycle plastic bags for you (just have to bring them your accumulated stash). That being said, a BYOB shopping strategy can make your life a lot simpler because there is no longer a need to accumulate that cupboard filled with plastic bags or figure out what and when to handle it. Keeping a few eco bags in the car or backpack is a great way to make sure you possess them when needed. Thus give back this year by remembering to BYOB! No matter whether it be in a convenience store, the mall, or while grocery shopping, we could make a difference for the environment and help elevate knowledge one transaction at a time.
For the struggle to eliminate disposable shopping bag waste, right NOW is the right time.
Let’s all do our part to erradicate the dirge of plastic shopping bags from our landfills and oceans. If you don’t want to (or can’t) spend money for reusable grocery bags, then just reuse the plastic bags you already have.
