Most environmentalists have opposed single-use, plastic bags since before Earth Day and would greatly restrict or ban them. So would a lot of the neighbors of landfills and people who live along highways and county roads where many of these bags seem to end up.
Likewise, the owners and operators of these landfills who must bear the cost of clean-up and the animosity of their neighbors. In addition, when people use them a second time to get rid of household or medical waste and tie the plastic bag shut, it greatly reduces the rate that the trash in those bags will decompose, thus hastening the end of the useful life of the landfill.
As the City of Racine looks for ways to reduce or eliminate non-recyclable waste, it has been pointed out that the Wisconsin legislature, in its wisdom or response to lobbyists, has prohibited any municipality in Wisconsin from banning or severely restricting the use of these omni-present plastic bags. Therefore, it is up to the retailers, or we as individuals concerned with our environment, to reduce, eliminate, or at least find multiple uses for these symbols of our modern, throw-away society.
First, a little background information of which the average citizen may not be aware: According to the Center for Biological Diversity, Americans use 100 billion plastic bags per year, which requires 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags per year.
According to Waste Management, only one percent of plastic bags are returned for recycling; that means the average family recycles 15 bags a year while the 1,485 end up in landfills or blowing around the neighborhood, into the rivers and streams, ending up in the oceans to be fatally ingested by marine life.
So what do we do about this, on the assumption you do care? The first suggestion is to use canvas, mesh or reusable plastic bags for groceries and other purchases. I keep at least five bags in the car at all times, and do my very best to remember to bring them into the store with me. And this applies to not just the grocery store since virtually ever retailer will put an already packaged purchase into a plastic bag. Cloth and mesh bags are readily thrown in to the weekly wash to keep them fresh, while the fancier reinforced plastic bags can be wiped clean almost as easily.
If you do end up with a plastic bag, be sure it is reused at least once. The church and many of us use or reuse plastic bags –– as wastebasket liners, storage containers, and even on highway clean-up projects. Back when garbage collectors would reach into the bin for a small load, we would tie the bag closed for their convenience and safety. Now that the collection is mechanical and automated, it is best to leave any plastic bags untied so that the contents have a better chance of decomposing in the landfill.
Much plastic bagging is recyclable. Single-use bags that are not being reused, bread bags, bags that the newspaper comes in, plastic wraps around some junk and other mail and similar thin plastic material can be recycled at most grocery stores.
Let us not be one of the 1,500 bags-per-year people or the one percent recyclers. We can and should be responsible environmental stewards. The CEO of a grocery chain with stores in the Racine area has said that his company will no longer use these polluting, wasteful bags in the not too distant future, but until then, it is up to us.
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