by Vincent Barry

Created on: January 11, 2011   Last Updated: January 12, 2011

When you close your eyes and think about shopping bags, what do you see?  Like most people you probably saw white plastic grocery bags with a brand printed on either side; those free and durable shopping bags which you can reuse to cover trash cans or recycle for some other temporary use until they are torn and you throw them away.  The key word being durable. 

These shopping bags are petroleum based and don’t degrade in land fills, these are the bags you see floating on the seas and killing wild life.  Yes, those free things you take home from the grocery and supermarket?  They pollute our environment.

Plastic bags are expensive to recycle and not biodegradable, they often end up in landfills and take around 300 years to begin decomposing and around 1000 years (give or take another century) for full decomposition.   

As a result, environmentalists have called for the complete ban on the further manufacturing of non-biodegradable plastic bags.  However, such a drastic measure would result in the massive unemployment of those in the plastic bag industry and would not be advisable given the current International Economic Crisis.

The plastic bag industry have begun manufacturing biodegradable plastic bags but these do not come as cheap neither are they as durable as their non-biodegradable counterparts therefore, not as popular as the latter.  

Retailers have also began doing their part, charging customers for plastic bags as practiced in some European countries, specifically by France.  

The current trend and the more practical solution of the environmental friendly consumer is to use their own washable and reusable tote bag.  Emphasis on the washable, for good hygiene.  It also allows shoppers to make a statement by bringing their own personalized reusable bags every time they go to the supermarket or the grocery.

Retailers have capitalized on this ongoing trend offering their own tote bags for sale near the cashiers.  Some retailers have even gone the distance holding environmental days where they do not provide plastic bags even for  those willing to pay a fee on certain days of the week.

It is acknowledged that in order to lessen the impact of plastic bags to the environment it would take leaders with political will and governments would have to work together.  So, what is the point of all of this?  We can each do our part.  We can take responsibility for our actions and contribute in our own little way to lessen the impact of plastic bags to the environment.  Waiting for politicians to make the necessary legislation would lead us nowhere.  The earth would be covered in plastic before that happens!

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