Should Indiana bag disposable grocery bags?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 13, 2009 at 1:11pm

I have become painfully aware of how the choices I make when I purchase and consume things have an impact on the other beings I share a planet with.

This article is one example among thousands.

Give it a whirl. Don't throw anything away for a week. Then try and figure out where all the stuff goes when you leave it at the curb for trash day. How much could be recycled? How much could be composted? How much reused?

I'd love to chat about helping others implement the little experiment in their daily lives, too, and learn how their consumption patterns impact their neighbors.

best always.

joe

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sara McCrcken on June 13, 2009 at 1:22pm

I would like to know more. Please post more of your experiment.

By the way, if you have more old shirts than you need for rags, the cotton woven (not knitted) ones make great shopping totes with not much sewing.

I would appreciate anyones ideas on re-using stuff we throw away or recycle

I had to fight for a second recycling bin but now I hardly have anything in the one "trash" bin. As an aside.. I wonder if anyone has an answer to stopping the practice of impounding small items in huge almost impossible to open plastic packaging which is usually non-recyclable ( other than boycotting these items)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Christian Diemer on June 13, 2009 at 1:47pm

I have re-used both paper and plastic bags as trash bags for along time. Though I am not sure if actual trash bags decompose faster then those plastic ones or not, just figured it was a container I was throwing away anyway so it might as well be full of something else im throwing away.
So I don't know about a ban, but maybe design them to selfdestruct faster.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 13, 2009 at 1:55pm

We can make bio-degradable plastics from corn.

Part of the problem, though, is that most of our trash is sent to landfills, and landfills are designed to PREVENT things from degrading. Rather, they contain and keep the materials in place to prevent watershed contamination, leaching of toxic materials into adjacent soils, etc.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 14, 2009 at 3:49pm

HERE is some info on plastic bags.

HERE is a brief reference for recycling the little buggers.

HERE is another about the giant ball of trash that's twice the size of Texas and floating in the Pacific Ocean.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sara Croft on June 13, 2009 at 9:39pm

I use cloth bags when I go to the grocery, but in the past I have forgotten them out of a rush...so sometimes it is nice that there is something there and I do not have to buy more bags just because I forgot mine.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 14, 2009 at 3:44pm

Your illustration is poignant. It shows how we have created easy answers to our unconsciousness. So much in a rush that you forgot your reusable bags? Don't worry...we've got you covered.

If I look at from another perspective, we're enabling each other to continue to be in a rush... to be unconscious... to not worry about such things as how the choices I make impact my neighbors, future generations and the planet we all share?

Were those bags not available, I assure you that I'd probably not forget my own the next time.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 15, 2009 at 8:45am

The answer to all of your scenarios is simple:

Get conscious. Wake up. Choose to make decisions with full awareness instead of being a victim of circumstances.

Popping by Target on the way home from work and forgot to bring your bag? purchase a reusable there - they have several inexpensive options - and give it to a friend who doesn't have one when you're finished. Same goes for being on vacation or when traveling.

It's not about being perfect. But it is about taking full responsibility for my choices and the impact of those choices.

When I "forget" something, I'm unconscious. It happens all the time. I can't blame the circumstance, but instead find a solution to my forgetfulness. I go home first to get the bag. I wait until tomorrow to make my purchase. Or I carry the things in my arms to my car.

It's very simple, really. Not always convenient, but very simple.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 15, 2009 at 9:05am

I don't think I've "forced" a choice on anyone, but rather asked you to look at how your choices impact those around you.

If you don't believe that using plastic bags has a negative impact on the land, water and air we share, then by all means choose appropriately.

What I wonder is this: what compels you to take on a different belief about the lifestyle choices you make?

Does scientific data related to the manufacture, use and disposal of plastic bags have meaning for you?

How about first-hand experience? Would you like to visit the Pacific Gyre and see how our waste is killing millions of creatures every year?

Do the stories of other people in other places relating their experiences with our trash help?

Perhaps you're not even open to the idea that anything you do impacts anyone else. That's also certainly your choice.

Just wondering...

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 15, 2009 at 9:55am

"There is no scientific evidence that says these plastic bags (or paper bags) are killing millions of creatures every year in the Pacific Gyre. None linking these bags to killing creatures at all."

You're certainly free to believe anything you wish.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 14, 2009 at 3:32pm

What happens to plastic diapers after the trash guy picks them up? Where do they go? How many end up there? What's the long-term cost of handling them in this way?

Think about it... little packages of human waste wrapped in plastic, dropped into another plastic bag and shoved into the ground in such a way as to prevent their breakdown. That's a lovely thought...

The same question could be asked about the 300 BILLION plastic grocery bags used every year in the US alone. Where do they end up? What's the long-term cost of burying them? What will cost to remove them from the ground when they begin to break down and poison our watersheds?

Why do we make things that are meant to be used for 17 minutes - the transporting of our Twinkies from the grocery to our house - that will last 500 years?

Is that not just plain insanity...leaving our plastic-encased poo-filled messes buried in the earth for someone 50 or 100 or 500 years down the line to deal with? If it's not insanity, it's pure selfishness.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 14, 2009 at 7:35pm

Chris, I admire your passion. However, your suggestion that smoking tobacco or the use of plastic bags only affects you as an individual is a little kooky.

The air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we live on... we share it. Each of us makes choices on a daily basis about what we throw away, what we consume, what we release into the water and air and soil.

When we the people decide that some materials or substances or activities are no longer in the interest of all of us, we can choose to elect representatives to enact laws and regulations regarding those things.

Lead-based paint is a good example. We the people decided that it was poisonous and we ought not be painting our window frames with it. Even if you wanted to paint your windows with it - you know... something that seems to only affect you - once you moved it'd still be there. Kids would chew on the window sills or eat paint chips or even breathe the dust from the old paint, significantly increasing their risk for all sorts of disorders. Some would end up in the soil by your house and poison that soil for a very long time after you were gone. So we the people asked our elected representative to do something no individual could possibly do - end the manufacturing of LBP in the US.

So the same may go for plastic bags. We might all - or at least a majority, and in a constitutional, legal fashion - decide that the long-term impact of permitting the manufacture, distribution and use of plastic bags is not in the long-term interest of us all. We may decide to stop making them, tax them out of existence, whatever. But the reality is that when you choose to use something that ends up in a landfill, it's not affecting only you. It affects us all. And 300 billion bags a year in the US alone isn't just an occasional "I forgot my cloth bag a home" or "I'm on vacation and didn't pack a reusable cloth bag" number.

▶ Reply to This

• First
• Previous
• Next
• Last