Plastic Bags: Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

I have decided to make a conscious effort to use as few plastic bags as possible from here on out.

 It disturbs me greatly when I go into the garage and see the huge (plastic) Crate & Barrel bag that holds all the other plastic bags our household has collected over the past months.  It is estimated that over 1 trillion plastic bags are given out to consumers every year - over 1 million per minute!

But it isn't enough to say all plastic bags should be banned - What I think is needed is a shift away from a "Use and Toss" mentality.  Paper bags or compostable plastic require more more raw materials per bag in the manufacturing process which means a higher consumption of raw materials, greater energy in bag manufacturing and greater fuel use in the transportation of the finished product.

One reusable bag takes approximately the same amount of resources to make as 28 plastic or 8 paper bags.

When we do use a plastic bag, it is vitally important that we dispose of it properly - the best (and easiest for me) would be to bring your clean, dry bags to a plastic bag recycling bin.  Almost every grocery store in my area has one out front.  The most difficult thing for me is remembering to bring them.  Since my Crate and Barrel bag is too large to fit through the recycling bin opening, I have decided to fill my daily newspaper plastic bag with as many of the other, collected plastic bags as I can and keep them in the trunk of my car, so that when I go to the grocery store, I'll have a neat bunch to drop off!

If we simply put the used plastic bags into the trash (as my garbage collection company recommends), the plastic can then take up to 1000 years to degrade in a landfill.  When plastics breakdown, they don't biodegrade, they photodegrade - break down into smaller fragments which soak up toxins.  They then contaminate soil, waterways, and animals upon digestion.  This makes the proper recycling of plastic bags that much more important.

I am going to see how many days I can go without taking a single plastic back from a store - Safeway, Target, H&M... I already brought my own sack to the Harvest Fair & Festival yesterday and was able to refuse shopping bags from three vendors who offered them.

Let me know if you have any ideas for recycling used plastic in the home - I have seen some clever DIY projects that I'll try and share in the coming months.

Saving the planet one plastic bag at a time!