Single-use plastic bags don’t stay in one place. They fly out of trash cans, transportation trucks, and landfills, landing in our rivers, streams, lakes, and even the Gulf of Mexico. Whether in water or on land, animals ingest plastic film, and we consume water containing plastic microbeads and fish containing plastic particles. Even when we dispose of plastic bags in landfills, they break into tiny pieces and seep into groundwater, eventually ending up in our food chain.
Plastic bags never decay into organic pieces; this is the problem. The tiniest plastic particles attract chemicals that adhere to them, which we unknowingly ingest. So, not only are we consuming plastic, but also various chemicals!
As consumers, in the past, we never thought about using single-use plastic bags because we didn’t know how harmful plastic is for us and for all beings on the planet!
But now you know, and you can think differently and change your habit of taking plastic bags from the store and throwing them away or trying to recycle plastics.
And you thought recycling single-use plastic was a good thing. Recycling doesn’t help. There is no market for plastic bags, and most recycling today isn’t reused. It is easier for manufacturers to start with new plastic pellets (nurdles) and make new bags to recycle single-use plastic items. Each year more single-use plastic is produced than the year before! According to publicintegrity.org, by 2028, eight (8) metric tons of plastic pellets will be delivered in a year.
“Production of the most common plastic, polyethylene, is on track to jump more than 40 percent by 2028 in the U.S., according to research firm S&P Global Platts. That’s 8 million metric tons per year more than in 2018 — roughly the amount, coincidentally, that scientists estimate is annually flowing into the oceans now.”
But you can do something about it today. And it will change the way you think. As a consumer, you have the power to vote on your purchases. If you buy reusable bags made from sustainable sources such as bamboo or other plant material, you’ll get the plastic out of our streams, oceans and landfills and help drive the market to a more sustainable method of carrying items you buy.
You can also vote locally for propositions that will reduce single-use plastics and politicians that support thinking differently about using resources. It’s about helping people see that they have a choice. They can use something other than single-use plastic items! The more innovative we become with our resources, the more jobs we can create, and at the same time, we can change the manufacturing processes to be better for the environment!
