Your reusable cloth bags, that is.
As you might guess from the subject matter I most love to paint, I have growing environmental concerns. It does seem to me that we’d be better off to start changing our habits, but I think we all tend to feel that “going green” is either going to be hard or expensive or both. Many folks seem to understand that it’s something we should do, but we don’t think we’ll enjoy it much. Sorta like eating our Brussels sprouts. They’re good for you, but…
Now, I’m no paragon of greenness, but I’m here to tell you that, so far anyway, “going green” is not nearly as daunting or expensive as we’ve been led to believe. I’m also learning that, besides the whole eco aspect of developing new greener habits, there are often other benefits as well.
Let’s consider the lowly plastic shopping bag vs. reusables. These days, you may have noticed more and more people bringing their own bags into stores; we’ve all heard it’s the “green” thing to do. But I’m finding that shopping with my own bags just plain makes my life simpler – green or not. Here’s why I’ve learned to loathe plastic and love reusable shopping bags:
1. Reusables are strong. Even the cheap 99-cent reusables are much stronger than the flimsy plastic ones. And MalWart’s bags win the prize for flimsy – have you noticed? How often have you been lugging a bunch of loaded plastic bags into the house and had at least one of them suddenly split, dumping your toothpaste, toilet paper and eggs on the ground? (Why does it only seem to happen when it’s raining or you’re in a hurry or…something?)
2. A reusable bag is bigger and holds much more than a plastic bag. I think they have to make the plastic bags smaller in part because they’re so thin and flimsy. No doubt this particular relationship between size and flimsiness has been calculated to maximize profits – probably through double-bagging – because we all know that if you overload plastic…well…see item #1.
3. The reusable bags are flat and square-bottomed. They stand up. They don’t have to be tied shut to keep their contents from rolling out and all over your car when you round your first corner. Even the soft fabric bags contain your stuff better, because they’re not super slippery like plastic.
4. Reusable bags are, um…reusable. (Duh!) Because they’re bigger, stronger and hold more, you need to keep fewer of them around. They don’t accumulate over time. Plastic shopping bags just seem to pile up – I swear they actually reproduce! (The secret life of plastic! Who knew?) Over a relatively short period of time, you can bring home dozens and dozens of the things which raises the question – what to do with them? Well, you can throw them out (which is when they become a major environmental problem). You can save them and then remember to take them back to the store for recycling. That’s not such a bad solution, except I find it much harder to do this than to just bring a few of my own reusables into the store.
5. And yes, reusable bags are just plain better for the environment. Other than the obvious waste of piling them into landfills, for a long time I didn’t get just what the problem was with plastic. If you’ve been wondering too, here’s the thing:
These light plastic bags are like parachutes – they can so easily get loose from the trash truck or a landfill and the next thing you know, they’re drifting on the breeze, landing who-knows-where and photo-degrading. According to CNN, there’s a giant field of plastic and other garbage floating in the Pacific, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) – and it’s a growing problem. Photo-degradation is what happens to many plastics while bobbing on the waves or caught in the bushes. The stuff never rots; instead, over time and with exposure to light, it just sort of breaks down into little pieces and then can be consumed by turtles, birds and other critters – often killing them.
Recently, I was sitting at a traffic light here in central New York – thousands of miles from the Pacific Ocean – and glanced over to see a bright yellow shopping bag drifting and skipping over the ice of a small pond. At that moment, it was clear to me how the GPGP came to be. If you believe as I do, that all creatures have an intrinsic right to exist whether we humans have a “use” for them or not, then once you have this awareness, choking and dead wildlife are not something you want on your conscience.
So, while electing to switch to reusable bags is a common sense, life-simplifying choice, it turns out it’s a serious “green” one as well. (And hey, you might even get paid! Some stores, in an effort to encourage reusable bags, actually give a nickel credit for each one you use.) You do need a system, however. New habits take awhile, but I’ve learned to hang my empty bags on my kitchen door until the next time I go out to the car. I have a plastic storage box there where my six or eight bags live. Very simple.
So, all I have to do is remember to bring them with me into the store – and I’m getting better at that all the time. I don’t have to deal as much with the many annoyances of plastic. And just maybe, somewhere out there, I haven’t killed something as a result.
