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…
Hey Bubba–I know I was tweaking the gods, but still, I waited until the dip/dork award had been issued before I posted. Can’t presume on your mercy.
Doesn’t everybody store the bags and use them in many ways? Seems years ago there were quite a few articles on how plastic had less of an environmental impact than did papers bags if total cost was calculated.
Still–given their specific limited one time use, seems like a natural fit for sugar based plastic or whatever?
Lets recap though. Your engine while very interesting is still an infernal combustion engine and bad for the environment no matter how efficient it becomes.
The Plug-in Hybrid really is the way to go and the “vehicle to grid” technology is the real grabber. All off the shelf right now, a real stimulus to the economy, energy self sufficiency==no drawbacks except for car dealers. Someone always has to pay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_hybrid
I am just so confused about the issue at hand. My solution is to make 5 trips a day by car to the market, buying only what I can carry in my hands so I don’t have to make a choice between paper and plastic. See, a bit of analysis and the issue is resolved!
You think that plastic bag lobby is greater than the oil patch boys? easy, use your hands to carry thing.
Walk the walk
#10 – Get bent.
Whether you are right or wrong, all your kind of people do is bitch. This article is just conveying information. Environmentalists are trying to proactively make the world better for all, as if that were some sort of crime.
What have you done?
Answer – charge a nickel for each plastic bag used. That will drive reuseables.
Incentive is a powerful force.
No more free plastic bags from the market? Damn! Now I’ll have to buy new ones to put the cat poop in.
#25 – Right on.
#26 – Right on.
In my area Publix supermarkets sold really nice canvas grocery bags for 99¢ each. Those suckers will never wear out.
We have a lady(about 60 y/o, Birkenstocks, long pleated skirts, typical hippie attire) here in the neighborhood who collects old discarded clothes, cuts them up and fashions grocery bags from them. They hold about twice what a plastic bag holds, with nice, comfortable handle straps, and if they get soiled, they are washable. She does about 30 at a time then gives them away in front of the local Albertsons market. She refuses to take money for them. It’s amazing how many people actually use them. She’s been doing this for about 9 months now and when I walk up to the market, I see almost everyone local carrying at least 1 of her bags to the store.
Gotta love those old California hippies.
Plastic bags in Ireland cost 20 cents each. This has encouraged people to buy canvas type bags or reuse the plastic one’s. It not that big of deal.
#24 – Environmentalism is all well and good until the environmentalists start trying to destroy all that makes life worthwhile in the name of the environment. I was actually a contributor to the Sierra Club in my youth before I started paying attention.
#26 – I do that too. I shouldn’t have to buy bags for that.
I’m waiting for woven stainless steel cloth for my reusable grocery bags. I could also use that to make dog toys that actually last.
I should mention that plastic bags are recycled where I live. We put out “blue boxes” with our discarded glass, plastic containers and cans, paper is bundled or put in a cardboard box, corrugated cardboard is bundled and food stuffs are put in a green trash can.
With slight variation, most cities in Ontario (Canada) recycle almost 100%.
Getting in late…
I see China is mentioned as moving from plastic bags to paper bags.
Huh? Really? ‘Cause Plastic bags still rule in China.
Maybe they meant Taiwan – Republic of China?
I see no problem with China using plastic bags as they get recycled along with everything else so whats the problem?
People pick out all the recyclable stuff from the local neighborhood rubbish collection bin – like a large dumpster. Not like Canada though, JimR and not a pretty sight especially in the summer…yuk.
Cheers
#21, Bobbo,
Yep, it’s the same old infernal combustion engine. But the way the real world works, it will be many years before hybrids / electrics make up the majority of vehicles. Inertia is a real PITA. It took almost 2 decades before fuel injection became standard on cars.
So why not, in the meantime, use a tech that costs very little, is easy to implement and boosts the IC mileage and drops the CO2 output both by 20 percent? A quick fix won’t hurt while we wait for reliable green tech.
That 20% savings over the next 10 to 15 years will add up quickly.
Environmentalists are trying to proactively make the world better for all, as if that were some sort of crime.
I’m usually against more laws but ….
I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia where we have had a successful recycling program for many years. My local supermarket recently announced that they will discontinue offering plastic bags next month.
Having said that, I don’t believe that these puny efforts will stem the tide that is polluting the earth. Recycling may make us feel better, but the lions’ share of waste and pollution is created by massive manufacturing operations and the extraction of our planet’s resources, not to mention the ridiculous packaging of consumer goods — and there is no serious effort to curb any of that.
At the same time, advertising agencies constantly come up with new ways to convince us that we must continue to “consume” (an interesting and appropriate word, BTW) the planet on which we all must live.
As long as our economy depends upon so-called “growth” and the ever-expanding consumption of the junk that is foisted upon us we will continue to wallow in the excrement of our industrial manufacturing system until we’re buried by it.
#34–Bubba==don’t try to trick me into a false choice. Of course, we should do both/all things.
The emphasis, especially if the government wants to spark change, is to go with a solution that WORKS rather than one that just slows down the mistake.
Your new engine doesn’t create new jobs or a new industry or encourage new energy sources. But as interim–sure. Aren’t there “many” such “better” designs. Seems to me electronic controls cam shaft with variable valves coupled to a diesel was at least 20% efficient–as are rotary engines etc. Also–bit tricky what you did there. 20% efficiency is only the phase in effect over 15-20 years ==all on a technology that needs to be replaced?
So, yes, you are being “more realistic” but when you become “EVEN MORE” realistic–I think we’re back at implementing real solutions, not stopgaps.
xxx
Same issue crops up repeatedly. Note the derision San Francisco went thru a month ago banning plastic bottled water? And are plastic glasses in hotel rooms to be left out? Better get those mexican maids up to snuff.
USA might like plastic bags but Japan absolutely LOVES them (at least Tokyo does). I spent a week in Tokyo and was amazed by the fact that they put everything you buy in a plastic bag. Buy a bottle of Coke from the 7-11? Get a bag. Buy a dvd? Get a bag. Go to McDonalds (I had to see what Japanese McDonalds was like)? Not only do you get a bag, they put your food in a paper McDonald’s bag like we have here in the USA but then they put that paper bag in a plastic bag! WTF?
Of course they also have recycling bins everywhere which isn’t something we have in the USA, so I guess it all works out.
Bobbo, uh, what does saving gas and decreasing energy have to do with “new jobs”? Who said anything about a new industry? You must be pulling the old 3 headed cat trick there.
It’s nothing more than a bottom engine replacement for pistons and cranks, no new “hi tech”. Simple and easy. It’s just machining.
So simple and easy, we’ll never see it. The rest of the IC engine stays exactly the same. Whatever you want to add in the way of “high tech”, go right ahead. Show me the data on electronic cam/valve timing vs. expense. I’ll bet it’s not a 20% increase in gas mileage and 20% decrease in CO2.
Ah, junk, it’s too late to post on this anyway, no one will ever read it.
Did you actually click thru and read the article? Just wondering…
If they’re not handing out plastic bags for free, I don’t shop there.