We’ve all had it happen to us; with the mindset of ‘get it done’ and the wheel of activities for the day turning in your head – you forgot to say to the clerk, “No bags please”. Before you know it, the 10 items you purchase have been packed away in 6 plastic bags.
A 5-year observational study released by 5 Gyres Foundation found that the ocean now contains 269,000 metric tons of plastic. There are many ways plastic makes its way into the oceans, but one of the key problems is that plastic travels via river outlets like the Mississippi River. Think of the river like a plastic highway to the vast enveloping seas. Take that into account along with the 1.2 million square mile watershed described by the National Park Service and this one-way interstate becomes a never-ending maze, pointing straight to the North Atlantic.
The U.S. consumes 1.6 billion gallons of oil each year to produce the 380 million plastic bags it uses, according to Food Democracy. “Use” is a loose term, not even “consume” could be used to fully explain the notion. According to ConservingNow, the average family accumulates 60 bags in just 4 trips to the grocery store. However, on average we only use that bag for 12 minutes! You start to think, “Man, where do all these non-biodegradable, ec
o-destroyers go?”
According to State of the Planet, only 6 % of plastic we throw away is recycled and nearly 8% of it is used for energy transfer purposes. The rest sits on a dump site and decomposes- slowly. It is estimated that plastic takes a 1,000 years to breakdown. This is a long time! Meanwhile, due to littering and the forces of nature, we see plastic enter our waters – rivers, oceans, lakes. In fact, it is estimated that 100 million tons of plastic wallows in our oceanic waters, robbing the ocean floors of the light it so desperately needs, and therefore literally and figuratively chocking life out of the water.
Guaranteed, the Mississippi River and its linking waterways are a part of this drainage system of plastics and disposables. Therefore, we as River Citizens are a part of this system.
Photo courtesy of colorblindPICASO
So how do we do it? How do we change this destructive behavior? Well, the easiest step to reduce plastic waste is to use the alternative: paper bags serve the same purpose and they are more manageable. Most stores have this option, but you’ll have to ask for “paper instead of plastic.” The best solution though, is simply to acquire reusable bags you can take with you into stores. The most comical method I have come across to invoke self-habituation is to ban the use of any bag in your home entirely, that way if you do forget your reusable in the car, you will have plenty of amusing stories to share on how you managed to carry those 10 items by hand. I think you will find that the best way to alter a perspective is to lead by action, while sharing your trials with friends to invoke responsibility. One example shown within the U.S. is the great city of San Francisco. The city now requires a charge on all plastic bags to all food establishments as of October 2013 and retail stores since October 2012 What this does is encourages social change, we as people are always willing to save a buck and what better cause than for the very planet you live on. Save your environment, use your own bag.
The next question we need to answer is what we can do with the heaps of plastic we already have floating around. Ill cover that in my next post, “How to make plastic worth something again.”
Calvin Price, MRN Intern