Refusing Plastic Bags - Even those "Made from Recycled Plastic"

Some municipalities have to pass laws banning smoking, banning plastic bags. Here in Haines, Alaska, at least two proprietors I know have made human and environmental health part of their business practice: last year, Christy Tengs Fowler, Bamboo Room and Pioneer Bar, banned smoking. Recently, Mike Ward, Howsers IGA, announced that he will retire plastic bags. Pretty nice town we live in.

Mike's move raises the question of what type of bag to use. How about paper? Turns out that only about 20% of paper bags are actually recycled - better than the rate of recycling for plastic bags (5%) but still not very good. As with plastic bags, the manufacture of paper bags emits global warming gases, creates water pollution, and uses raw materials and energy.

Watch out for reusable bags made from recycled plastic. It turns out that that is not such a good deal. Take a look at the standard operating procedure for building a bag from recycled plastic:

The recycling process typically involves transportation of the discarded goods from the US to Asia where environmental regulations aren't as stringent. The raw materials are reprocessed to make the new material, which is shipped back to the US for assembly and transport to the retailer. The entire journey uses petroleum resources and creates harmful emissions. (Frequently Asked Questions, Plastic Bags, www.healthebay.org/assets/pdfdocs/PPI/FAQs_PlasticBags.pdf

How Big a Problem Are Plastic Bags - Really?

Evidently, most plastic bags do not biodegrade, they photo degrade. That means they break down into smaller and smaller pieces. They do not go away. Plastic resin polymers are so durable that they can take hundreds of years to break down, if they every truly do. Even worse, our plastic seems to flow to the sea. About 60-80% of all marine, and 90% of marine floating debris, is plastic. To sea birds, marine mammals, fish, and sea turtles, plastic bags resemble food or prey. Those discarded bags look uncannily like jelly fish or sponges. Annually, about 1 million seabirds, 100,000 marine mammals, and countless fish die through ingestion and entanglement in plastic debris, including plastic bags.(healthebay.org, Plastic Bag Fact Sheet).

How Big is the Problem? Take a Look.

For a visual of the size of the problem, go to photographer Chris Jordon's photo of 60,000 plastic bags - the number of plastic bags used in the United States every 5 seconds. http://www.healthebay.org/currentissues/ppi/theneed_chrisjordan_bags.asp.