June 9th, 2019 : Bag Bashing

[xoxoxoBruce]

When people believe they re doing the right thing they tend to look down their nose at anyone not in step with them
You know vegans look down on vegetarians, who look down on omnivores, who lord it over cannibals.
Tap water drinkers cast a jaundiced eye at bottled water suckers, reusable grocery baggers give the stink eye to single use bag toters.

While some people may scowl at the sight of a plastic bag, they usually aren’t doing so because of what’s written on it. That’s the not the case with the latest batch of bags being handed out at a Vancouver market on Main Street. In an attempt to discourage people from using single-use plastics, these plastic bags are printed with large embarrassing designs.

Located on Main Street and King Edward Avenue, East West Market is an independent grocery store specializing in gourmet goods and locally-sourced products. They’ve been serving the community since 1996, and hope to encourage customers to bring their reusable bags when they go shopping. “So many people own reusable bags but forget to bring them,” said David Lee Kwen, East West’s owner, “We want to help customers remember their reusable bags in a way that will really stick with them.”

Currently, East West charges customers five cents per embarrassing plastic bag that they take. They plan to continue handing out the specialty bags for the foreseeable future, but note that they’d rather no one take them. Instead, they hope to start a conversation about single-use plastic bags, as well as influence shoppers to bring their own bags – whether they are shopping at East West or somewhere else.

I wish I could get those bags, I love ‘em.

The proliferation of plastic products in the last several decades has been extraordinary. Quite simply, humans are addicted to this nearly indestructible material. We are producing over 300 million tons of plastic every year, 50% of which is for single-use purposes – utilized for just a few moments, but on the planet for at least several hundred years. More than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year.
Packaging is the largest end-use market segment accounting for just over 40% of total plastic usage.
Annually approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. More than one million bags are used every minute. A plastic bag has an average “working life” of 15 minutes.
Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century.
Beverage Bottles Alone
According to the Container Recycling Institute, 100.7 billion plastic beverage bottles were sold in the U.S. in 2014, or 315 bottles per person. 57% of those units were plastic water bottles: 57.3 billion sold in 2014. This is up from 3.8 billion plastic water bottles sold in 1996, the earliest year for available data.
The process of producing bottled water requires around 6 times as much water per bottle as there is in the container.
14% of all litter comes from beverage containers. When caps and labels are considered, the number is higher.

Yada, yada, yada... You’ve heard it all before.
Consider yourself edumacated, chastised, and forgiven for past sins, so go forth and be fruitful.
Doxology.

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