Plastic Shopping Bags Impact Our Food

Plastic Shopping Bags are Connected to our Food?

 

Plastic shopping bags are my pet hate.  Wherever you look, in the city or in the country, plastic shopping bags are everywhere, causing plastic pollution.

Many people talk about recycling plastic shopping bags, but in fact the percentage that are recycled is completely minimal.  That means there’s tons of plastic pollution – all over the world.

Where I live, plastic shopping bags are no longer free; shops charge for them – this has worked well as people are more cautious, so there is less plastic pollution.  People try to fit more goods into a single plastic shopping bag, or better still, bring their own re-usable bags with them when they go shopping.  Yet there is still plastic pollution.

The big problem with plastic pollution is that it never goes away – plastic shopping bags do not biodegrade.

Recently, TV network CNN ran a series called “Plastic Wars” where they looked at

  • Plastic bags and their effect on the food we eat (yes, they do affect our food!),
  • Their effect on the environment
  • How efforts to ban plastic bags have been blocked, and
  • Why Andy Keller was sued while trying to make a difference

To read more about plastic bags, see the Resources list below the video – and there’s also a link to a great ‘mocumentary’ on plastic bags which is extremely well done.

 

 

Resources / Related Articles

5 Myths (debunked) about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (or Gyre)

Death by Plastic

Plastic Bag Mockumentary

Who puts all the Plastic in the Sea?

Who is your Constant Companion?

 

 

 

 

 


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  • Clare, I never really thought about where plastic bags go or what happens to them when they are thrown away.
    Scott Sylvan Bell
    Now go implement!

  • Hi Clare,
    I had no idea that plastic bags could alter our food. The video is really well done as you say!
    Thank you for sharing it!

  • Clare,
    I watched this video constantly thinking about how I, too, have likely contributed to this problem. I have rarely given much thought to how I take my groceries home but now I will.

    One question though, the video mentions briefly paper bags as well. I would assume that these would be much kinder to the environment. Why would these not be better than plastic?

    Dennis

  • I personally don’t like plastic shopping bags either. What type do you recommend? I refuse bags of any kind whenever possible and for a time was taking reusable bags to the market. However, I’ve read that reusable bags harbor all kinds of nasty bacteria…so now I’m not quite sure what to do.

    Cherie Miranda

  • I have to say I’m checking back to see how you answer Cherie’s question. I didn’t know that about reusable. I can’t stand paper however because they become useless.

  • Clare,
    Our local farmers’ market no longer offers plastic bags. They offer a biodegradable bag for 25 cents.

    I saw that some folks made their own produce bags from old t-shirts. Sounds like a viable option.

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