Saturday, September 4, 2010

Stop Using Plastic Bags

I watched a documentary on the history of the plastic bag, which was a horrifying reality check.

At home on the west coast I'd been toting around my reusable bags for a couple of years.  It was more of a comfort issue related to walking groceries home without cutting off my fingers...as well as the fact that we never reused plastic bags at our house because they are a sorry excuse for a garbage bag.  I hated just throwing them out, and so I reduced as much as possible the wastage from our home.

Having moved half way across the world now, I've started to accumulate reusable bags, but the horrific cupboard of bags is grating on my nerves.  It must stop here!

We are killing our wildlife, both on land and, most especially, in the oceans.

What is just ironic is that in India, where cows are sacred, they are left to rummage for food in heaps of garbage where they generally eat plastic bags all the time.  Though the cow's digestive system has adapted to break down things as mind boggling as tin, not even their advanced systems can break down plastic.

So cows are starving to death because once eaten bags accumulate in their guts and prevent their digestive process!

There are even rescue charities who operate to remove them.  One cow had 50 lbs...that's right 50 LBS of plastic bags removed from his gut!

These need to be outlawed as quickly as possible.

What are the alternatives?

Natural fibre reusable bags for one, but if it is possible to create a cornstarch based disposable utensil that is bio degradable, then why not a bag?

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