It's Easy Being (Plastic or Paper) Bag Free!
Hi Everyone,
Last night's PrimeTime special on "Planet Earth 2007" concluded with Diane Sawyer standing in a huge room packed floor to ceiling with plastic bags and paper towels to demonstrate just how many disposable products most of us in the modern world will use in a lifetime. Unfortunately, she failed to tell viewers just how easy it is to bring a stash of cloth bags to the market, much easier even than leaving the car at home for trips under three-miles. Yes, right along with a Chain-Store Ordinance, Ojai needs a Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance, like the one they have in San Francisco.
The following editorial first appeared in the April 11, 2007, Ojai Valley News, and the next day, as I stood in line at the Post Office and walked around town, at least six people, all highly-conscious, aware, progressive fringe-element types (and I mean this as a compliment since it is well-documented that most change in society begins with those of us on the fringe) told me how "guilty" my editorial made them feel. So, in case you missed it, I'm taking the liberty of posting it here.
It's easy being bag-free!
Years ago I went to a market in Saanen, Switzerland and, much to my chagrin, they did not provide a bag for me to carry my groceries back to the chalet. I purchased a string bag on the spot, and after that I never again forgot to take my own bag to the store in Europe.
More recently, while visiting my relatives in Holland, I noticed that my cousin, like many other Dutch shoppers, brought cardboard boxes each time she made a trip to the store. For larger items or quantities, boxes work even better than canvas bags.
My bicycle is equipped with two large saddle bags that hold two giant canvas bags of groceries or other items. For larger things like watermelons I hook-up my trusty bike cart or use my handy personal shopping cart which I purchased at Star Market for about $18.
I also keep a large sturdy attractive straw basket, an old back-pack and a variety of recycled bags and cloth bags permanently in the car. Storing the plastic and paper bags you already have on hand immediately in the car rather than stuffing them in a drawer and risk forgetting to bring them when you run to the market, is one of the easiest things you can do for the environment.
It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the plastic bags Americans use each year. In addition, about 15 million trees are cut down to produce paper for paper bags. You can help reduce oil consumption and save trees simply by bringing your own bag on your next trip to the store.
Each sturdy reusable shopping bag you use has the potential to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic and paper bags over its lifetime.
As other citizens of our beautiful valley have pointed out, the City of Ojai should adopt a Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance. The facts and figures regarding the true cost of plastic bags are well-documented on web sites like Resusablebags.com which features a counting clock of plastic bags consumed this year. One million bags a minute are consumed, becoming trash and choking marine mammals.
Becoming a plastic-bag-free City is one more important step towards Ojai becoming a model Sustainable City. Local stores can look to stores like the Swedish furniture company, IKEA for ways to encourage customers to remember to bring their own re-usable bags. IKEA is charging shoppers in their U.S. stores five cents for each plastic bag. The move to charging for a bag helps to remind more people to bring a reusable sack. Stores should also credit customers five cents for each recycled bag used in bagging their groceries.
Ojai stores should take the lead and adopt bag reduction measures such as the above as soon as possible. There are numerous other ways to motivate customers to bring their own bags, boxes and baskets. Another step used by some stores is to provide a bin where customers can use re-cycled paper and plastic bags brought in by other customers, for those times they forget to bring their own.
Ojai stores could have a display with the Top Facts on the true cost and environmental impact of plastic bags. For example:
Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. 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.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)
According to the industry publication Modern Plastics, Taiwan consumes 20 billion bags a year—900 per person.
Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.
Plastic bags do not biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
Windblown plastic bags are so prevalent in Africa that a cottage industry has sprung up harvesting bags and using them to weave hats, and even bags. According to the BBC, one group harvests 30,000 per month.
According to David Barnes, a marine scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, plastic bags have gone "from being rare in the late 80s and early 90s to being almost everywhere from Spitsbergen 78° North [latitude] to Falklands 51° South [latitude].
Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation.
Remember: Each high quality reusable shopping bag you use has the potential to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic and paper bags over its lifetime.
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Comments (18)
An excellent reminder. By the way, there is a type of guilt that is appropriate and productive. I take my plastic bags with me and reuse them, and use as little as possible. I lived in Holland for awhile and witnessed the more progressive laws they have. I also get around Ojai almost entirely by bicycle. Keep getting the message out.
Comment #1 Posted by: Dennis Leary | April 21, 2007 10:15 AM
Yes, I meant the good kind of guilt, the kind that gives you a little nudge, a teeny tap on the shoulder, and points you in the direction of the greater good! (Those that said they felt guilty did so with a smile and said it was a great article! And I saw one of them going to the store recently with a bunch of canvas bags that looked like the freebies you get when you donate to environmental organizations.
Comment #2 Posted by: Suza | April 21, 2007 10:29 AM
Suza, can you get some more info on the Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance from SF and post it here? if the results of the Ojai Valley Wide Discussion are any mandate, then "Develop an environmental plan to make the Ojai Valley a model green and more sustainable community" certainly contains such an ordinance. any opposition - and i anticipate that there will be some - will be just as telling as the current chain store fiasco, but we'll ultimately be better for it.
as far as bettering our planet, and the peace that i believe comes out of that, count me and the Ojai Peace Coalition IN! i'll get in touch with the Earth Club at Nordhoff too...some student energy awaits there.
challenge number one may be in getting businesses to willingly buy into the idea...i anticipate anxiety, discomfort, and failure if a "from above" ordinance is passed ON them, without their input and support.
Comment #3 Posted by: evan | April 21, 2007 12:53 PM
You might check out San Francisco Plastic Bag eduction Ordinance Facts. This site also has a great ticker at the top of how many plastic bags were consumed this year.
Read full text of ordinance
Comment #4 Posted by: Kenley Neufeld | April 21, 2007 01:07 PM
One ordinance at a time.
Comment #5 Posted by: Anonymous | April 21, 2007 01:38 PM
Yes, no doubt. I was just posting in response to Evan's inquiry for more information.
Smiling and breathing.
Comment #6 Posted by: Kenley Neufeld | April 21, 2007 01:48 PM
Thank you Kenley. The link you posted above to the San Francisco ordinance cite is great! Here is a little history on the San Francisco ordinance from
http://culturechange.org
Culture Change Letter #155
Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance, San Francisco
by Jan Lundberg
Will compostible-bag substitution accomplish what fees on plastic bags
could, at least in the progressive California city of San Francisco?
Probably, if the non-petroleum content and biodegradability of the new
bags, and the use of reusable cloth bags, are maximized. This reporter
believes a worthy goal can be met here starting this spring.
The plastic plague is still growing and out of control, with the ecosystem
and our lives in the balance. Targeting bags is a place to start
modifying the unconscious behavior of consumers and the conscious
pollution by huge retailers.
Two years ago, the City of San Francisco was poised to become the first
municipality in North America to enact an ordinance to place a fee on
petroleum-plastic bags given out at supermarket checkout stands. But the
liberal Mayor, lobbied by plastics-industry and megagrocer-industry
interests, scuttled the legislation despite massive and widespread
support.
Then, last year the Governor banned all California cities from placing
fees on bags. There's a clue as to how committed Arnold Schwartzenegger
is to moving the state away from fossil fuels.
Fortunately, some people don't just throw in the towel. As usual, it is
at the local level whence initiatives come that society as a whole should
embrace. San Francisco is actually not so terribly ahead of the pack,
when nation after nation has enacted fees and bans on plastic bags with
great success. These measures have reduced pollution of the landscape and
waterways, and cut down on petroleum (and greenhouse gases) generated for
the bags.
At the City Hall hearing in San Francisco held by a committee of the Board
of Supervisors, on March 8, 2007, the Plastic Bag Reduction Ordinance was
pushed by both government and citizens. Part of the overflow crowd had to
go occupy a nearby room with closed-circuit TV.
The targeting of plastic bags by the city once again focused on the needs
of the composting program that the city cannot carry out properly when
there is plastics contamination. So, the proposed ordinance would
substitute compostible bags for petroleum-plastic bags given out at
supermarket check-out counters. The benefits cited most often at the
hearing were greenhouse-gas reduction (9.2 million pounds per year) and
lessening oil (petroleum) consumption at a time of both peak oil and oil
war (as mentioned by the committee and citizens).
The object is to remove ultimately 150 million plastic bags from the waste
stream annually. At present, only one percent of the petroleum-plastic
shopping bags are recycled in San Francisco, even after major grocers have
tried to improve the rate to make up for their defeating the bag fee.
After supportive testimony from a large small-grocers group, waste experts
and environmentalists, the committee decided to include more than the 54
stores targeted in the legislation; large pharmacy stores are to be
included. This change puts off adoption of the ordinance until March 22
at the next hearing.
The pro-plastics "suits" were on hand [ - To read the rest of this
article, go to:
http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104&Itemid=2#cont
- make sure all the address is pasted into browser.]
* * * * *
CULTURE CHANGE
P.O. Box 4347
Arcata, CA 95518 USA
Telephone and fax: 1-215-243-3144
Email: info@culturechange.org
Comment #7 Posted by: Suza | April 21, 2007 01:59 PM
Thank you Kenley. I tried to post a little history on the San Francisco Ordinance but got a message saying it had to be approved by "the owner of the blog." Will check back later.
Comment #8 Posted by: Suza | April 21, 2007 02:02 PM
I also want to thank Evan for all his good suggestions. The more we can involve students, who go home and influence the parents, the better. We need a critical mass of customers who decline paper or plastic.
Comment #9 Posted by: Suza | April 21, 2007 02:31 PM
Suza,
I've been trying (on and off) to adhere to a cloth bag policy since my teens when I had the opportunity to live for a summer in Europe and was exposed to the idea and success of it there. But as with many things in life, sometimes one forgets the urgency or gets lazy and just needs a little "goose". Thanks for providing that here.
Maybe you could also start a thread on the wonderful thrift stores, garage sales and flea markets that we have in the county and Southern California in general. Buying second hand is also a great way to reduce our consumption liabilty. And the added benefit to one's home is unbelievable. I would much rather live in a house that resembles some of the old European dwellings where items are eclectic and have been passed down from generation to generation than I would one that looks like it came out of the latest catalouge of Ethan Allen, Ikea or Target. People who doubt the efficacy of this idea should realize how the thrift shops and garage sales in wealthy communities like Ojai are abundant in "finds" and treasures.
Comment #10 Posted by: LTOR | April 21, 2007 04:53 PM
Thanks LTOR! Everything is connected. Your suggestions remind me of the book, "How Much Is Enough?: The Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth," by Alan Durning. For now, I'll leave a thread on second-hand shopping to someone with more expertise in this area. However, I will definitely announce my next garage-sale in the Ojai Post!
Comment #11 Posted by: Suza | April 21, 2007 06:05 PM
I'll check out the book. Thanks Suza. Keep us "posted"!
Comment #12 Posted by: LTOR | April 21, 2007 06:25 PM
Interesting how quickly corporations come to the rescue of plastic, as with the S.F. and Swartz... examples. We live in a money culture plastic petri dish and money is eating us alive. The solution is people power, and there are promising signs that a few people are waking up here in Ojai to the political plastic bags that are suffocating Ojai. Hi ho, Oh High! I get high on you, your royal high nest.
Comment #13 Posted by: Dennis Leary | April 22, 2007 09:44 AM
Just read in Adbusters the following countries have complete or partial bans on plastic bags:
* Rwanda
* Zanzibar
* South Africa (2003)
* Bangladesh (2002)
* Bhutan
* several Indian provinces
Comment #14 Posted by: Kenley Neufeld | April 29, 2007 04:39 PM
well we clearly can't follow the lead of THOSE back-ass-wards places. after all, this is America!
(if this line of unlogic leaves you uncomfortable, take heart: you're still alive and thinking)
Comment #15 Posted by: evan | April 29, 2007 10:30 PM
Something close to home...
It looks like Santa Barbara is stepping into the plastic bag ban arena. See the Daily Sound article from May 16, 2007.
Comment #16 Posted by: Kenley | May 16, 2007 09:35 AM
Thanks, Kenley, for calling our attention to this plastic bag ban article. For those of you who might not know this, my nephew, Das Williams is on the SB City Council. I am, of course, very proud of all the great green things he is doing!
Comment #17 Posted by: Suza | May 16, 2007 11:04 AM
Oh the evils of plastic. Like plastic wading pools? Wonder how many bags-worth of plastic they use each? And how to dispose of them?
A rock-lined garden pond grouted with earth-friendly polymers (used widely in green construction) could do the job. See how easy it is?
Just trying to promote self-awareness.
Peace and Love,
Yer pal, Snarky
Comment #18 Posted by: Yer pal, Snarky | July 26, 2008 01:17 PM