According to bringyourownbag.com , the average north american family of four uses 1000 plastic bags each year, 80% of which come from the grocery store. (I assume these statistics are from a few years ago -say 2000 -ish)
here are some facts about plastic bags:
-100 million plastic bags a week go to landfill.
-Plastic bags can take between 15 and 1000 years to break down in the environment.
-Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That translates to over one million per minute.
-North America goes through 110 billion plastic shopping bags annually.
-Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways polluting our soil, rivers, lakes and oceans.
-Production of plastic bags requires vast amounts of oil.
-Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food(apparently they look a lot like jellyfish...)
Now, try to avoid going and buying a re-usable bag (but if you have to, try to get one with more natural, bio-degradable fibers that is sustainably made). There are a lot of options, such as:
-bringing plastic bags that you already have
-lots of stores give out reusable bags these days(I'm sure you have some at home)
-carry a back-pack (it's an easy way to carry home groceries if you live alone or have a small family!)
-have a fun, creative project and make some out of re-claimed materials (old jeans will probably work well!)
I already carry a backpack and decline plastic shopping bags almost all the time, but still I am going to try and reduce this even more. I am also going to try and cut down on the clear-little baggies that you put your produce in.
Any other tips or suggestions? How do you carrying your groceries home? What about when you go shopping, do you bring a bag along?
Any other tips or suggestions? How do you carrying your groceries home? What about when you go shopping, do you bring a bag along?
Market Basket!
ReplyDeleteBut I do have some plastic bags kicking around my house anyway.
Interesting fact: Plastic bags are illegal in Rwanda. I may have broken this law a few times by getting lucky at border searches. I swear the luggage searches are more for discovering plastic bags than anything else (and consequently hammering in the fact that even the tiniest details are under police scrutiny in Rwanda)... New Years eve we were just passing through from DRC and my bag was selected and the guy found the plastic bag I was using to keep my dirty shoes separate from clothes because I didn't zip that compartment. They hadn't seen it on our way through to Congo so at least it served me for most of the trip. I guess I had to get caught sooner or later, it's just so convenient to put extra shoes in a plastic bag, or even just forgot that there's a plastic bag stuffed somewhere in the bottom of your backpack.
In Kigali supermarkets they give out paper bags. What's the verdict on those?
That all said, if you've ever been to a slum, or seen pictures I guess - or even up and down the street in my nice neighbourhood, plastic bags are often what stand out - they're everywhere. But not in Rwanda - and the difference really is visible.