Australia and China are phasing them out, Germany and Ireland tax them, but in the United States, the plastic shopping bag is still king…
Americans use 100 billion plastic shopping bags a year, according to Washington-based think tank Worldwatch Institute, or more than 330 a year for every person in the country. Most of them are thrown away.
A handful of U.S. cities and states have made moves to cut that number and Whole Foods Market, a supermarket pitched at the organic and natural food shopper, said it would phase out plastic bags out by Earth Day on April 22. But critics say the United States is years behind countries in Europe, Asia and Africa…
Made from crude oil, natural gas and other petrochemical derivatives, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil are used to make the bags the U.S. consumes each year…
“The mentality in America is plastic bags come from plastic bag land,” said Mastny, of the Worldwatch Institute. “We don’t think about where they come from and where they are going.”
The plastic bag lobby is as big as the Oil Patch Boys lobby. Oh…
I remember reading about an experiment that took place in one city or county where they banned plastic bags (sorry for no reference–I’m sure you can Google it). They hoped it would reduce the use of plastic and such. It actually didn’t change it much at all. People no longer had the grocery bags to use as small trash bags, carry-alls, etc. So people went out and bought actual trash bags, spending more money and buying just as much plastic WITH extra paper or plastic packaging.
I think a reusable shopping bin would be the better alternative, as several have stated. Paper can get wet and tear or skanky to re-use. The more we re-use, the better. “Reduce, re-use, recycle,” right??
We have reusable shopping bags here in Australia that you can buy for a $1 or so and they work great. Don’t miss the plastic bags at all and frankly there is no reason to.
One reason for getting rid of plastic bags that is not mentioned, is not just the cost of manufacture but the damage they cause to marine life which gets tangled up in them and often killed, when they get into waterways and such.
Since most Australians live near the coast or some waterway, thats a legit problem. Bottom line is they work and really the only reason not to adopt something like this in the US is if the egos of some who take pride in a very screwed up way in what they can consume in one lifetime.
Dan
All you have to do is have all of hollywood using cloth bags, and the american sheep will follow because they think its cool.