I use all our plastic bags from the store for trash- right now we are low on food and I am low on bags, have brought some up from my pantry stash of bags-

Any way, found this on another blog, don't know if these numbers are right, they seem very high!  I'm thinking our family gets and goes through about 10 bsgs a week, once a day for the kitchen and a few times for bathroom or diaper trash- 2 in diapers.  We use the smallest trash can avaliable.  Our city does require weekly pick-up, which is, I think, a good idea.  I know several of yu don't have garbage service.

So- what about these numbers?  Anyone know if they are right?  

Related topic- global warming- heard today 1999-2000 was the warmest time, we've been cooling since then- hence the big push for legislation, as the cooler numbers will be coming out and people won't be worried.  Does anyone know if this is correct?

So, here's the info I read- 

Introduced just over 25 years ago, the ugly truth about our plastic bag addiction is that society's consumption rate is now estimated at well over 500,000,000,000 (that's 500 billion) plastic bags annually, or almost 1 million per minute.

Single-use bags made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are the main culprit. Once brought into existence to tote your purchases, they'll accumulate and persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years.

Australians alone consume about 6.9 billion plastic bags each year, that's 326 per person. According to Australia's Department of Environment, an estimated 49,600,000 annually end up as litter.

In 2001, Ireland used 1.2 billion disposable plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.

Four out of five grocery bags in the US are now plastic.

Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food.

In a dramatic move to stem a tide of 60,000 metric tons of plastic bag and plastic utensil waste per year, Taiwan banned both last year.

According to the BBC, only 1 in 200 plastic bags in the UK are recycled.

According to the WSJ Target, the second-largest retailer in the U.S., purchases 1.8 billion bags a year.

As part of Clean Up Australia Day, in one day nearly 500,000 plastic bags were collected. Unfortunately, each year in Australia an estimated 50,000,000 plastic bags end up as litter.

The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store.

Each high quality reusable bag you use has the potential to eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime. The bag will pay for itself if your grocery store offers a $.05 or $.10 credit per bag for bringing your own bags.

Windblown plastic bags are so prevalent in Africa that a cottage industry has sprung up harvesting bags and using them to weave hats, and even bags. According to the BBC one group harvests 30,000 per month.

Feedback?

Tracy 

 Ok, I take back what I said about it being a minor issue. Maybe there are other huge issues we need to deal with, but this is still a biggie.

I've been buying biodegradable bags; however these are still made from petrochemicals. I think an important step is to start composting and to separate garbage carefully - that will reduce the amount of waste that needs a bin-liner. We are presently looking into compost bins. You can buy even tiny composters for use in apartments. (you could take your finished compost to a nearby garden?)

I'm concerned about the immense amount of plastic packaging used on our foods, too. I mean, its out of control.

I'm always against taxes and over-regulation, as I think it makes it difficult for people who do the right thing - such as using their bags responsibly - but I guess we have to accept that there is a vast majority of people who won't do the right thing unless they are forced to either by law or by being made to pay.

Do you like the idea of the plastic tax?  I think it makes some sense, even 2 cents a bag would encourage re-use.

 I compost some, but there is still a grocery bag of trash a day- mixed leftovers-anything dairy shouldn't go in the compost, diapers, packaging,  kleenex, just basic trash.  Trash won't go away, we need to look at some better ways I think to package food- wish we had the Canadian bags of milk instead of paper or plastic cartons, I can see that being a big savings of trash space.

Tracy 

 I had a baby four months ago, in the hospital- I was induced, and it took a while- about 24 hours, then we had to stay about another 12 hours due to both of us being low blood sugar, and postpartum bleeding- anyway- 8 large bags of trash were used for that stay- I can't see going back to another way for a hospital stay- I balance that with my son's birth at home- one trash bag, if that, I brought my desk in the room and we had supplies on that- not many.  It's that there is no right or wrong on a lot of these things, just different!  Like cars- you might have a super economical hybrid, easy on the environment, but costing more than I can make in several years.  We have a 1986 Econoliner that holds most of us, is hard on the environment, but cost $1000 3 years ago- I don't know how much it's worth now- anyway it carts us around sometimes, uses tons of gas and is hard on the environment, but is paid for and has a CB radio-

What other frugal topics- plastics, cars, health care, governmental assistance, real life hours- have no real black or white, merely a shade of grey?

Tracy 

You are right, Tracy, that our decisions are made with our own needs in mind -- that is, if we are not psychotic! -- & that means that, across folks, to put us in the aggregate, things that we choose to buy or not buy come in shades of grey.  I would like to point out, however, that morality is NOT shades of grey for believers, at least.  OBVIOUSLY, you did not imply anything at all about moral right & wrong.  PERSONALLY, I think that environmental issues, like how much we discard into the trash/environment, do have a moral right & wrong, but how they fall out in our individual lives comes in shades of grey.  PROBABLY, I am seeming confused!  This is such a hard area to talk about!

 I use plastic bags to clean up after our dog when we are out walking.  We take her to the high school track and since it's fenced she can run loose.  Does anyone have any suggestions on what to use for dog-doo clean up?  I won't pick it up with my bare hand and carrying a pooper scooper doesn't seem like a good idea. We pick it up with the plastic bag and throw it in the trash can at the track.  I don't want kids to step in it or worse!  I do believe we need to cut back on our use of plastic bags but even the garbage collectors want the garbage in a plastic bag inside the trash can.  We recycle faithfully and don't use a lot of disposable items.  The other issue I believe should be addressed by the environmentalists is the use of disposable diapers.  They take up a lot of land fill space.  When my kids were babies I used cloth diapers almost exclusively.  Even 25 years ago, I didn't want to fill the landfill with used diapers, plus, they are expensive.  

 I don't think we need more taxes, but maybe some type of incentive!!  When I was a kid, (I'm 54)  milk was sold in glass jugs and returned to the store for reuse.  A gallon of milk in a glass jug is rather heavy.  We also had returnable glass soft drink bottles.  It seems to me if we as a society are going to cut back on the use of plastic, then we need to go back to some of those methods of reusing items.  It's a really complex issue.

This is a great topic... and it's ironic that is was brought up because it's something I've been thinking about a lot lately.

I want to say, first of all, that though I don't tend to be a total recycling fanatic, I do believe in recycling. I think that it's terribly sad that most areas do not have easy access to recycling. For instance, when I was younger and when we lived in Baton Rouge (the city), we had a recycling bin that was picked up by the trash people. Growing up, my mom and step-dad were very adament about recycling ANYTHING that we could and I think it was a great lesson for us children. But, now that I live in a suburb, we don't have that service. Honestly, I don't even know where to go to recycle aside from a man a few miles down the road that takes aluminum cans. So, that said, I think that if the government had more programs and services to make recycling easier, I think more people would recycle including myself. Now, I don't know if I would support a tax to encourage/discourage or any laws, BUT I do feel that some type of incentive would be nice and/or better recycling programs that are acccessible to more people.

Regarding the bags, I save all my grocery bags and use them for trash and dirty diapers. Sure, I'm re-using and that's good, but I'm still increasing the landfill wastes, which is bad. I've been thinking more and more about getting some reusable grocery bags (cloth) and may do so soon.

The bags don't bother me as much as just the excessive use of plastic, in general. Yeah, it's a wonderful product that has revolutionized the food, storage, etc. industry. Heck, it's probably affected almost all industries in a positive way. But there are always negatives with any new technology and this one has a big fat negative!

I think it's a matter of society changing our ways: we are fast-paced, always on the go, both parents working, etc. We use most of the products due to the fact that they are "convenient". I think that if we all slowed down, women returned to the home, etc. that it would allow us more time and flexibility to eliminate much of the waste from our lives.

Sure, many suggest just opting for items that are packaged in cardboard containers or buying more in bulk, but that isn't always easy or budget friendly. I usually buy the plastic bottled detergent because it seems to disolve better and it's usually on sale (and the powder isn't) but I always think how if I bought the powder detergent I could just burn the box. Then, I bring my lunch to work every day (staying home I wouldn't have this problem). And since I work in an office I usually bring left-overs and items that I heat in the microwave. Well, they are usually in plastic containers. Even before the recent news reports about the chemicals being released from the plastic when heated (including bottles) I always figured as much because you can almost smell it after you take it out of the microwave. So, though they really don't know how harmful this is yet, I know it can't be good! But it's cheaper and easier for me to bring meals like this.

Side note - I've been having similar thoughts about using disposable diapers. If I was a stay at home mom, then I think I'd be totally up for using cloth (though my husband would probably think I was nuts). But with working and having so much to do when I get home, I just don't think that I coudl handle the cloth diapers. Perhaps for the next baby.... But I definitely applaud women who use cloth!!!!

Ok. I'm done babbling. I type fast so I get carried away. LOL.

God bless and great topic!

Julie

Like Tebaliah, I use my grocery bags to pick up after the dog.  I've tried using paper bags, but they don't fold well, they leak, and they are much harder to carry.  I also use them to line the trash cans in the bathrooms, as they're just the right size.  Extras (I have too many bags for my one dog and the bathrooms) go into dispensers in the park where I walk him for other people to use.  

I agree that plastic usage on this planet is a problem for a variety of reasons - but I can't see a tax being the only solution; part of it, possibly, but in our convenience-driven society, I could easily see stores upping prices overall rather than pass on a direct tax on plastic bags.