BYOB (bags people!)
Jul 24th, 2008 by Meghan
Although I have recently increased my yoga practice, I nearly had a melt down when the sweet looking man at our local supermarket began bagging our groceries last night. We had brought with us 2 reusable bags and he acted as though he wasn’t sure what to do with them. Perhaps a language barrier? I assisted his packing efforts and within moments he moved on from the half full cloth bag and dove right back into his comfort zone; double bagging a bag of chips and 1 box of crackers. ”Excuse me, I was hoping to not use any plastic bags this trip.” A strange look grew upon his face, one might even take it as… pissy? So there I am, defending my reusable grocery bags. Jeff was kind of embarrassed and proud at the same time. What is the deal? I understand that I cannot go around making scenes all over LA-or could I? Should I? I’m not sure whether it’s the immediate convenience or the unconscious habits of the past but Plastic Bags are a really big deal! In this day and age, disposable anything sort of sends my stomach into flips. Why are we so spoiled? Unconscious thing again?
About a year ago I was catering a Hollywood bash when a fellow waiter from Ireland filled me on the charges that accrue if you do not BYOB(bag) in her homeland. Hmmm, does this work? ”Carse”, she said. My inquiry began and I found that In 2002 Ireland passed an aggressive tax on plastic bags. It stated that the consumers would be charged 15 cents for every bag they use. Never meant as a moneymaker, yet instead as a stimulus to change people’s habits. The good news being, there was a 90% drop in consumption and approximately 1 billion fewer bags needed? that year. It works!
Greenstream reasons to BYOB in your town.
-Plastic bags are made of polyethylene, a petroleum product, a carbon creating non-renewable source.
-Americans use over 380 billion polyethylene bags per year
-It is estimated 100,000 marine mammals die each year because of plastic litter in our ocean
-The use of a plastic bag can be counted in minutes –Store to home. Plastic bags however, can take up to a 1000 years to break down, not disappear, and contaminate our soils and waters.
-Plastic bags are not free to consumers – they are actually adding an estimated millions of dollars a year to businesses bottom lines and pounds of junk piled up in our landfills.
- 47% of wind borne litter escaping from landfills is plastic – much of this is plastic bags.
Greenstream Style tips:
Reusable bags designers working hard to bring you up to beat on the style side of staying green.
www.neelabags.com
www.prettygreenbag.com
www.envirosax.com
www.etsy.com
www.earthchic.com