We have heard a lot of action being considered around the banning of plastic bags given away so freely from the grocery and department stores.  In the United States, Americans throw away about 100 billion plastic bags a year.  If one speculates about Canada, that would mean that we dispose of 10 billion bags a year.  But less than 1 percent of these are recycled.

Plastic bags come from petroleum, and the manufacturing of just fourteen of those plastic bags uses the same amount of oil that it would take to drive a car one mile.

Paper bags are even worse. Producing paper bags uses four times the energy as making plastic ones, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency. Right now, only about 20 percent of the paper bags in use are recycled.

And most of that plastic and paper ends up in landfills, which — you guessed it — incures more greenhouse gases as that plastic has to be transported to that landfill.

So what to do?

Firstly, the obvious option is to refuse the bag, either plastic or paper.  As well, bring your cloth bag.  Perhaps you could put some advertising on it like "I didn't use a plastic bag".

Secondly, the next option is to write or inform your business that you think that they should not use plastic or paper bags and give away cloth bags as part of the purchase.  They could put a tax on the purchase to cover the cost of the plastic bag.  This may deter the customer and encourage them to not purchase the bag.  The business should put up signs to encourage people to bring their own bags and/or purchase cloth bags in the store.

Thirdly, we should contact our local municipality or whoever is responsible for waste collection and let them know that they should recycle all of the garbage that they collect.  That way, if plastic bags are disposed of, they can be 100 % recycled.  Many cities across North America are looking at the banning of plastic bags.

In June of 2008, China’s State Council put a nationwide ban on plastic bags. The cabinet has demanded all stores (from major supermarkets to small shops) go plastic bag-free after June 1.  That would reduce oil purchase by 37 million barrels of crude oil on plastic bag production every year.

With nations from Ireland to Uganda — and now China — topping the bag-ban list, lets hope others will make moves to follow the trend.

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