No shopping bags please…

Would you believe it if you were told six billion people on this planet manage to consume 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags between them every year. That is a million a minute, according to reusablebags.com.

And each of these bags can take between 20 to 1,000 years to biodegrade. In other words, they just stay put for almost forever in landfills, water bodies, sewage systems, in cities and beyond. They are like ghosts who just hang around. Extrapolate this over years of use, and you have a problem running into trillions of bags. It will not take you to be a Newton to just imagine the impact of it all.

Plastic Bags: Serial Killers?
There is more to it. Animals, especially those in the seas, and birds mistake them for food and die of intestinal blockages. When the animal decays, the plastic bags are exposed again to the environment with possible repeats of similar casualties making these bags seem like serial killers.

And look around next time you are out in the open: bags, no less than eyesores, can be seen in abundance. Surely no pleasure for either the eyes or the heart.

Do not bank on paper bags
If you are already imagining using paper alternatives, pause for a moment. These may be more easily recyclable than plastic ones, can be made of recycled material and degrade faster, but they still add to the garbage. How many of us dispose off the same responsibly for recycling,? How many of us even have easy access to such disposal? And anyway, you cannot keep recycling forever as with every cycle, the quality falls till it cannot be used again.

The cost of 10 billion paper shopping bags?
14 million trees!! Some analysts feel paper bag production requires more energy, generates more solid waste, releases higher atmospheric emissions and waterborne wastes compared to plastic grocery bags. (Source: Davis Food Co-Op, USA website)
Options: Reuse, Recycle…
So what are the options? Broadly speaking, reusing plastic bags will help, but eventually the life of these gets over sending them into our environment. Recycling is possible, but not all bags can be recycled. Even those that can be, there are costs and energy required to collecting and sending them to recycling plants. Most importantly, how accessible are places where one can segregate such trash for collection for recycling? Can you think of one an arm’s length away that you would care to use? And again, this also only delays the plastic going back into the environment.

…Reduce, the best option
Prevention is possibly the best cure here. Every bag not produced equals one bag less to worry about. Easier said than done. But not impossible. What it would need is some smart messaging by retailers, and a bit of cooperation and understanding from customers.