Alternatives to Traditional Plastic Trash Bags.
Alternatives to Traditional Plastic Trash Bags.
Anyone who has spent time on or near the water lately has almost certainly come across a plastic bag? Whether they are floating by your stern, dancing down the beach, or wrapped around a tree branch, this junk is everywhere. As if it were not enough that we have to look at this garbage dump we have created, we must also recognize that it will be here in one form or another for countless generations to come.
You see, as cheap and convenient as plastic bags are, they come with a much higher true cost to the environment. Mass produced in the industrial boom of post-World War II, every plastic bag ever created is still out there today, either in its original form, or in smaller pieces. Hailed as a “wonder” product by the marketing gurus, the only thing “wonderful” about disposable plastic is that it exposes how short sighted and selfish mankind has become.
Without getting too technical, the bottom line is that plastic bags never really go away. Created from chemicals, primarily petroleum, the modern plastic bag cannot be broken down into biodegradable compounds. Just to name a few, all the plastic bags in use today - grocery bags, food storage bags, small and large trash bags, pet waste bags, etc…etc… will persist in the environment forever.
Plastic bags can certainly change form. Given enough time and sunlight, plastic can “degrade” into smaller and smaller pieces, but the same amount of unnatural material still exists, just in pieces. Bury it in an oxygen free landfall and it might shrink a little, but that’s it. Burn it and plastic turns into a glob of goo, releasing most of its toxic components into the atmosphere.
The only hope that plastic bags will ever disappear lies several hundred thousand years in the future. By then it is possible bacteria will have evolved capable of consuming this stuff and converting it back into its elemental form. Anybody really care to wait a few thousand centuries?
Unfortunately, most bags just end up literally floating around. Cruise through any metropolitan marina and plastic is in the water. Running an Internet search on the effects of plastic on marine life will reveal facts and images that even the worst litterbug would be ashamed of. Casualties of the plastic bag include sea birds, marine mammals, fish, and more.
One of the greatest victims is the peaceful sea turtle. After making it through the last 100 million years or so just fine, these majestic creatures are on the fast track to extinction these days. To be fair to the plastic merchants, fishermen and egg poachers have done most of the damage to the turtles, but a plastic bag adrift at sea looks remarkably similar to a jelly fish, one of the turtle’s favorite foods. For any skeptics out there, try swallowing a few grocery bags and see how you feel.
The gruesome particulars of the damage done include intestinal blockages, suffocation, and the particularly cruel one- starvation. You see as the belly of sea creatures fill up with non-biodegradable plastic there is less and less room for real food, leading to weakness, sickness, and death.
How did we get here - to this point in our development as a species where we are willing to sacrifice one of the most noble, gentle, and harmless creatures ever created so we can stuff more junk in a sack?
So what are we to do?
It’s simple really, stop using traditional plastic.
Viable alternatives exist.
First, get some reusable shopping bags and use them at the store. Organic cotton, hemp, and other natural fabrics are your best choices, but any fabric is better than plastic.
Here is a link to some examples
http://www.greenboatstuff.com/bagscases.html
Just avoid polyester or recycled plastic bags if you can. Sure, you can argue that the tough bags made from these synthetics are better than disposable bags, after all they are using recycled materials right? While there is some truth to this argument it doesn’t solve the problem of eliminating disposable synthetics in the first place, it only shuffles them around some. The only way we can break the cycle is to stop using synthetics in the first place.
To quote someone with tremendous insight –
“In Nature no synthetic substance is synthesized unless there is provision for its degradation; recycling is enforced.” – Barry Commoner
If you must choose between paper or plastic in the checkout line go with paper. Many valid environmental issues surround paper production, but trees grow and paper can biodegrade. As in many green choices there is often a choice between the lesser of two evils. In my opinion paper bags do less harm.
Second, consider biodegradable, vegetable based plastic bags. Yes they do exist now. Plan on paying more for biobags than you would regular plastic, but when you measure the true cost of both options, biobags are a bargain. Made from corn, biobags will breakdown harmlessly given some oxygen and sunshine, both readily available in any ocean, lake, or river. Available in several sizes, from small to large, and several in between.
One thing to be wary of are the new plastic bags that advertise themselves as "degradable." There is quite a difference between biodegradable and degradable. Biodegradable bags break down into natural compounds and return their contents to the Earth. Degradable plastic simply falls apart with time, converting one big piece of eternal plastic into countless smaller pieces.
For more details follow this link
http://www.greenboatstuff.com/bitrba.html
Third, replace your sandwich bags and plastic wrap with bleach free waxed paper bags and food wrap. Renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable, waxed paper is a very green alternative.
One more link
http://www.greenboatstuff.com/wabothcucofo.html
Once again, green alternatives to damaging products exist, work well, and are affordable too; all it takes is a little effort on all our parts to do the right thing.
