Reducing the Impact of Plastic Bags

Ever since I wrote my list of things you can do to help the environment, I've wanted to follow it up with some in depth looks at a few of the ideas. Until now I have been a bit busy to do so, but an article I saw on Yahoo! News today prompted me to get writing.

As you may have guessed from the title, I'm going to talk about plastic bags - the ones you get whenever you go buy something at a store.

So what's the problem with plastic bags? Well, they're made from plastic for starters. Why is that bad? Plastics come from oil, and oil extraction creates many problems for the environment and for the people who happen to live in oil-rich countries. Oil is a non-renewable resource so using plastic bags reduces our oil supply. Plastic bags also take a long time to decompose. There are a few other hazards related to plastic bags, but the above two are the main reasons.

There are at least three options to help solve (or reduce) the problem:

1) Banning plastic bags: San Fransisco became the first city in North America to ban the bags and bans have followed in several cities, including Leaf Rapids, Manitoba. Other cities, like Tofino in BC have looked into a plastic bag tax. As seen in the above article, Ontario is making strides to reduce the number of plastic bags used in the province.

2) Personal choices: You can (or a business can) decide not to use plastic bags. I have not used a plastic bag in months and I have even been reusing my plastic bags for bulk things. A simple solution is to bring a cloth bag (or old plastic bags) to the grocery store and just tell the clerk you have your own bag (they like that because they usually don't have to bag the items!). Many stores, like Mountain Equipment Co-Op, Peppers Foods (in Victoria, B.C.) and Sainsbury's (a grocery store in the UK) have started using biodegradable bags (seel more on that below). Another approach stores can make is to start charging for plastic bags or to take money off of purchases if patrons use their own bags. These are all effective ways of encouraging environmentally friendly choices.

3) Biodegradable bags: As mentioned above, some stores have made the switch to biodegradable bags (that can just be thrown into the compost). For more information on these, check out Bio Bag. There site contains some good information on the bags the company makes.

So as you can see there are already many choices to dealing with plastic bags. Do what you can. Perhaps where you live, you can save money by not using plastic bags. Give it a try. You'll be doing a small part to help the environment. If enough people make the switch it makes a big difference!