Grocery Bag Today; Garbage Bag Tomorrow
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 06.21.07
By some estimates, between 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are consumed world-wide every year; Americans are responsible for around 100 billion of those -- that's a lot. Towns like Modbury in the UK, cities like San Francisco in the US and stores like IKEA are all trying to do something about it, by banning them. We've also caught wind of the possibility of things like "Pay as You Throw" schemes, that charge people for garbage service based on how much they throw away. In Seoul, South Korea, such a scheme is already in place; upon arrival there, designer Emil Goh decided to come up with a scheme to reduce waste and plastic bags on his own. According to Goh, the "local council issued garbage bags of varying sizes are available from convenience stores everywhere. In Seoul, you have to pay for your plastic grocery bags at the supermarket and some corner shops, so thought I might suggest that instead of getting one of those...buy a garbage bag and use it as a grocery bag temporarily." The bags even come with instructions, which hopefully encourages consumers to not only use each bag for both purposes, but to think about all the stuff they bring home and all the stuff they throw out with each bag. The bag was designed as a limited edition print for SSamzie Gallery’s Think Green (site in Korean) exhibition, but the idea is good enough that we hope it catches on; make it from bioplastic and you've got yourself a green revolution in the making. ::Theme Magazine via ::MoCo Loco
My hometown in Illinois (like many others) had a pay as you throw policy in the early 1990s (Illinois had -- or still does -- very aggressive goals for recycling at the county level). Pretty much everything good go in the recycling bin (if sorted properly -- cans and bottles on top of flatten cardboard, etc.). Each bag or trash can that was put out of trash had to have a refuse sticker. You bought the stickers at city hall or the hardware store or other merchants. If you didn't have the sticker, they wouldn't take the trash. And each bag/can had to have a separate and new sticker each week. I assume the still do this. I had no idea that it was revolutionary. It was just a way to pay for recycling (and encourage it) without an increase in municipal spending.
We do something similar--we use grocery bags for trash bags for small garbage cans and for cleaning the cat box, rather than buying plastic bags just for those uses.
Sad, but many places (like SouthEaster U.S.) have no incentives or concern for something like this. I am trying to raise awareness on the local level by talking to people about it, and have already encouraged some neighbours to start going green.
Our local wal-mart has FINALLY started putting recycle bins in the front of the store for bags!
A step in the right direction.
This is a great idea. I used to use plastic shopping bags as garbage bags until I switched to bioplastic bags.
You know what they do with plastic bags in some poor countries, don't you? My Mom traveled to Panama a few years ago to check the place out for retirement, and was turned off by the smell of burning plastic everywhere - the people throw the bags 9and everything else) into their garbage heaps, which are then burned. Totally appalling when you really think about it.... Mom said she saw plastic bags in use EVERYWHERE, and vowed never to return to Panama because the air was so bad around the towns.
Just as smoking bans are becoming popular I think plastic bag bans will soon become a major worldwide trend.
Wales has recently announced its desire to ban plastic bags - but plastics manufacturers claim it would result in hundreds of jobs losses.
Plastic bag use was an epidemic in Ireland until the government introduced the 'bag tax' - which forced supermarkets to charge customers15c for every bag they gave out. Now pretty much everyone uses re-usable bags of one form or another. Simple, effective.
I've always used shopping bags as trash bags and those that don't get used for trash go back to the store.
As for the "Pay As You Go" plan, while I do believe it has good intentions, it didn't quite work in my area of Maine. Because much of the town is toward the bottom bracket of the income ladder, I often can see (and smell) people burning their trash in order to avoid the $1 per bag disposal cost.
Of course, Maine also refuses much of what can be recycled. For instance, if you had two plastic containers, both the same type of recyclable plastic, but one of them contained milk, you can't recycle the milk container regardless of how clean... I figure that if it has a recycle symbol, it should be recycled..
Maine's trash/recycle schemes often baffles me....
Plastic bags are a real problem in most cities in India (1 plastic bag floating in the wind = striking video in "American Beauty", 1000 plastic bags floating in the wind = environmental disaster) which is why I think these accessories made entirely from waste plastic bags are so cool.
I heard a statistic that garbage bag sales have increased at the same rate as 'free' plastic bag use has decreased.
I'd rather not use them at all, but I reuse my plastic shopping bags as garbage bags because here in Oz garbage is required to be wrapped/contained before being placed in the bin (in all the bits of Australia that I've lived in, anyway - other councils may have different by-laws).
Does anyone have any info on the impact of brand-new garbage bags as a result of the reduction of plastic shopping bags, and the comparative evil of the two options?