Wild Conservation – A Houston Zoo Blog

We have touched on the green theme a number of times so I thought I would simply cut and paste an article off of a website called Squawkfox with 50 resons to Go Green with Reusable Bags. The list is quite long so you get the first 25 and one solution. To see the rest just click here

I have also mentioned in the past that countries such as Rwanda  and Uganda and even parts of India have already outlawed plastic bags entirely so what are we waiting for?

The Problem:

1. Consumer Cost. At 5 cents a bag in many North American shops, the bucks add up! Ireland pays a hefty 15 cents per bag tax. Buying a bin or reusable bag can save you hundreds over the years. While keeping costs down is a concern for many, there are more pressing plastic matters at stake!
2. Production Cost. The production of plastic bags requires petroleum and often natural gas, both non-renewable resources that can cost big production bucks over time.
3. City Cost. Both paper and plastic bags costs our cities millions. From recycling costs to processing in landfills.
4. Disposal and Litter Cost. In a landfill, plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to degrade. Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photo-degrade, breaking down into smaller toxic pieces. Continuous management of the disposal and growth of the waste is an expensive business.
5. Ubiquitous. Everyone. Everywhere. Plastic and paper bags are everywhere. Nearly all of us use them, all the time. They are pervasive. Out of control. Disposable bags are a powerful symbol of consumerism gone mad. The over consumption of plastic and paper bags is ubiquitous.
6. Global Warming. Manufactured plastic and paper bags contribute to global warming. Paper bag production delivers a global warming double-whammy since forests (major absorbers of greenhouse gases) have to be cut down, and then the subsequent manufacturing of bags produces greenhouse gases.
7. Petroleum Depletion. It takes 0.48 MJ (megajoules) of energy to produce a plastic bag. An average car consumes 4.18 MJ in driving 1 km, or the equivalent of 7 plastic bags. We’re bagging the oil.
8. Loaded Landfills. One bag doesn’t take up much space, but millions do. Many cities are already having problems finding space for all their garbage. Reducing the volume of waste we produce means less new garbage dumps. I do indeed prefer parks over mounds of plastic.
9. Wildlife. Plastic bags are light, and can blow in the wind. They fly into trees and into wildlife habitat. Animals can consume these plastics, and perish. Plastic bags are a deadly killer to wildlife.
10. Marine Life. Over 100,000 marine animals are killed each year from plastic bags. Sea turtles, water birds, and other creatures mistake them for food or become entangled in them. In some parts of the ocean, there are six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton.
11. Litter. We may think we’ve thrown out a plastic bag. Albeit, many blow out of trash cans and become litter. Some are carelessly tossed. They are an eyesore and scar the landscape.
12. Recycling not financially feasible. Apparently, only 1 to 3 percent of plastic bags are recycled. It costs a whopping $4,000 to process and recycle 1 ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold for a meager $32 . This business model is a financial failure.
13. Recycling contamination. Of those bags that do reach recycling depots, the risk of plastic contamination is high. Melting the wrong plastics together can render the batch contaminated and unusable.
14. Flooding. Plastic bags littering our cities can end up blocking storm sewers. This contributed to recent flooding in Bangladesh and western India.
15. Dependence on foreign oil. Plastic bags are made from oil, much of which is imported from overseas. Not depending on something coming from thousands of miles away is better way.
16. Carbon footprint. Producing plastic bags requires energy. Transporting bags to the store burns through more energy. Much of this energy is obtained by burning hydrocarbons, which releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
17. Plastic is forever. Almost every plastic bag you have touched in your lifetime still exists in some shape or form. With few exceptions, plastic bags will take thousands of years to break down. The bag my first pair of shoes came in a couple decades ago is out there, somewhere.
18. Bag production releases pollution. In addition to petroleum, the manufacture of bags uses dyes, plasticizers, and other toxic chemicals. Many of the byproducts of their manufacture ends up in the environment as pollution.
19. Chemical leaching. Dyes and other chemicals found in plastic bags contain lead, cadmium, and other toxins that leach out into the environment.
20. Suffocation Hazzard. Ever read the warning on plastic bags? “This bag is not a toy and can cause suffocation of small children.” I’ve never seen this warning on a canvas reusable bag.
21. Paper bags consume more energy than plastic. It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag.
22. Paper bags consume forests. Most paper comes from tree pulp, so the impact of paper bag production on forests is enormous. In 1999, 14 million trees were cut to produce the 10 billion paper grocery bags used by Americans that year alone.
23. Paper bags do not degrade any faster than plastic. Paper in today’s landfills does not degrade or break down at a substantially faster rate than plastic does. In modern landfills nothing completely degrades due to lack of water, light, oxygen and other necessary degradation elements.
24. Paper bags require more landfill space. A paper bags takes up more space than a plastic bag in a landfill, but because paper is recycled at a higher rate, saving space in landfills is less of an issue.
25. It just keeps piling up. Every minute, every hour, every day. The the consumer baggage keeps adding up. Going with reusable bags can help stop the needless plastic and paper bag pileup.

The Solution:

1. Cost. Buy a few reusable bags or bins once. Reusable bags are inexpensive and last for many years, saving you money over the long haul.