The Poop on Plastic

We're not talking a little poo, we're talking mountains of waste here, folks!

According to various sources around the web:

• There are an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags consumed worldwide each year.
• That comes out to over one million per minute.
• Billions end up as litter each year.
• According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year and,
• According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. uses 100 billion plastic shopping bags a year.

• Hundreds of thousands of marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags that they mistake for food.
• Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade. This means when in the sun, they break down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways as well as entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest the bits.
• It also means that when the bags end up in the Land Fills, buried with other garbage and hidden from the sunlight, they don't degrade.
• According to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation, plastic bags are among the top 12 garbage items most often found in coastal cleanups.

So, we eco freaks have been trying to tell everybody about the problems with plastic for awhile now. In Thorne's World we recycle a lot of it and reuse and reuse and reuse. San Francisco, (smarties that they are) has actually outlawed the use of plastic shopping bags in supermarkets and pharmacies.

In Ireland an extremely successful plastic bag consumption tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%. Approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil have been saved due to this reduced production. Governments around the world are considering implementing similar measures.

Move over Ireland! Thanks to Congressman Jim Moran, a Northern Virginia Democrat, the "Plastic Bag Reduction Act of 2009", an earth friendly piece of legislation if ever there were one, was introduced on Earth Day this year. Since voluntary eco awareness and responsibility are not the strong suit of a consumer driven society, this legislation would hit folks where they will actually feel it. Their wallets! The bill proposes a 5 Cent per bag charge to hopefully encourage reusable bag use. The legislation would allocate the funding generated to land and water conservation programs, to lower the national debt, and to cover the costs businesses to implement the program.

So what can we do to reduce our dependance on those pesky toxic plastic single use shopping bags now, so we won't get caught short and have to pay real cash money when this legislation goes through in 2010??

PRECYCLE

Precycling is considering the garbage you're going to make before you do it. Think about the packaging on the products you're about to purchase. Is there a more eco friendly choice? Try it! For a serious lesson in plastic precycling, head on over to Fake Plastic Fish! This is one dedicated gal, and there is a lot of valuable information on her site. Feeling frisky? Take the Tess' Trash Challenge.

Remember to take your own reusable bags with you when you go shopping. canvas, string, recycled fabric, hemp; anything but single use plastic!!

RECYCLE

Take the bags you already have back to the supermarket's recycling bins.

REUSE

Okay, I'm not talking one reuse then toss them. I mean, that would help a little, but why not consider creative ways to reuse those bags until you can't reuse them any more?? Every time some non eco friendly dork of a company sends me a shipment packed with those awful styro peanuts, I put them in plastic bags. When I send something that needs packing protection myself, I leave the peanuts in the plastic bags, loosely, with a note asking the receiver to please recycle them again! I have a couple of repeat customers, whom I also purchase from and we have sent the same plastic bags full of styro peanuts back and forth 10 times! We live in the desert and spiders and sand gets into everything!! When I put my shoes in the boxes in the bins that I use for storage, I wrap them in plastic bags first. It keeps the sand and the creepy- crawlies out! I do the same with my winter clothes storage (and sprinkle some dried herbs in so they unpack smelling yummy!)

UPCYCLE

Upcycling is making something new and cool; even artistic, out of refuse. Check out my links and How-to's on making cool stuff that will last practically forever out of those single use plastic shopping bags.

What do you do to reduce the amount of plastic you consume? How do you recycle or reuse it? Have you ever made any of the upcycled crafts at the link, or have projects of your own to share? Tell me about it, or leave the link to your own plastic post or tip in comments and I'll visit and comment at your blog.

© Terese Hartjoy, 2009

Comments

[llhaesa]

Good post, excellent advice.

[pagan sphinx]

THis is an incredibly important and beautifully illustrated post, full of great ideas. The plastic bag thing is something I go overboard about, according to my co-workers, most of whom throw away everything. We don't have an adequate recycling program at our school and the inadequate one only just began a few weeks ago. It's very limited.

I take my stuff back home with me and recycle it or reuse it. I think the germophobes have a hard time with recycling because it's "dirty". It really is ironic.

[Bobbie]

This is a really wonderful post. I love the bit about "pre-cycling" That's got to be the best idea going!
I know that plastics have a real place in the world, but they have created such a tremendous problem!

[amanda guthrie]

Heartbreaking but amazing post. Obviously a lot of work went into this and you did and awesome job.

[Chameleon]

In a world of coinkydinks, here's one more just before I popped over to see what you were writing about this week, I was flipping through the calendar sent me by my bank. Each month features an eco-friendly tiip - the tip for June was this one: If just 25% of US families used 10 fewer plastic bags a month, we would save over 2.5 BILLION bags a year.

I'm afraid I'm a slacker when it comes to this - I BUY reusable bags for my groceries... and invariably forget to take them with me when I go shopping. As far as TRASH bags go, though, there I do well. Worcester started curbside recycling almost 20 years ago. At the same time, they switched to a municipal trash pickup system that cost 50-75 center per bag. The more you recycle, reuse or compost, the less it costs to put the trash out - Most weeks, our family of six puts out two kitchen size trash bags and 3 big laundry baskets of recyclables.

Thanks for a wonderful and thought-provoking post.. now I'm thinking that I really really do have to try that grocery bag crochet I've been thinking about.

[Hannah]

Hey ,
I feel really bad for the sweet harmless animals that are being killed by the thousands EVERY DAY!! It makes me upset to think about how people were put on this earth to love each other and to care for the animals, and they are being so very cruel! Thank you for caring for the animals and spending your precious time to build a website to let people know what they are doing!

[katkaif]

Thanks for sharing these interesting information.

[blah]

omg this is horrible!!!!!!!!!! shame on man kind

[molded plastic parts]

I always go on and on: plastic should be recycled. We alone are responsible for our planet.

[heatedup]

I think this is a tragety. I'm doing my part by burning all my plastics.