Plastic bags are everywhere, it seems. We shop at Target, buy a few items, and the purchases are put in a plastic shopping bag. Buy a pillow at Bed Bath and Beyond and it comes in a big plastic bag. Pick up some juice at 7-11? Plop, it is placed in a plastic bag. At the grocery store, doing the weekly shopping, we easily end up with 20 plastic bags. Sometimes, the items are double bagged. The salmon fillets we got at the fish counter was first put in a plastic bag and then into another bag at checkout. Does the Sun or another paper get delivered to your home? It comes nicely protected in a plastic bag. More recently, just to be safe, the newspaper is wrapped in two plastic bags. Oh yes, we even purchase plastic bags to protect frozen baked goods, store leftovers in the frig, or to throw our garbage into.
What do we do with all these plastic bags? We probably have a place to store them, and we use some as lunch containers (note: it is probably not a good idea to put food directly into plastic shopping bags). We might wrap some around our hands when gardening or pulling weeds or picking up dog doo. Some of us use them to protect our hats in the rain. They can also be used to throw out other garbage. But soon, we have a collection that is more than sufficient, so we dispose of them.
Here is the problem: We throw them into a plastic garbage bag with the other trash. Unfortunately, a vast number of these bags end up blowing around in the environment. Some, I guess, are dropped by mistake or thrown into an uncovered garbage can, and the wind takes them for a ride. Some are delivered to the landfill with the other trash and are picked up by a breeze and scattered about. Whatever the case, as you have probably noticed, they get stuck in bushes, hang like moss from trees, and float like rafts on waterways. I doubt if you can walk a block without seeing some. Just take a walk to the Jones Falls, and you will see them strewn all over the banks. Sewer lines may clog, or if there is a lot of rain, the sewer overflows and they go directly into streams, where they end up in the harbor, bay, and eventually the ocean. There are vast garbage patches floating in the oceans. The largest one is in the Pacific Ocean. This so-called “Great Garbage Patch” covers approximately a million square miles. Yow! That is bigger than the entire country of Mexico.
Besides being unsightly, plastic bags present a danger to children and other living things. Every year, a few children die of accidental suffocation while playing with plastic bags. Often animals mistake plastic bags for food and get sick or become entangled in them. Dead birds have been found inside these bags as have other animals such as turtles. Fish also mistake plastic from bags as food. To some fish, the bags look like jellyfish when floating in the water.
Here is another interesting and disconcerting thing about plastic bags: They don’t biodegrade. The bacteria that are responsible for this process can’t break down plastic. Eventually, after dozens of years, the plastic decomposes by breaking into smaller and smaller pieces. These can be very small, less than 5 mm in length (about the size of a sesame seed) or even microscopic. These micro plastics make it to the ocean. They have been found in seas all over the world at all depths, including the sea floor. Algae in the sea attach to these particles and give them a smell that attracts some small fishes like anchovies. Larger fish then consume smaller fish. And then, guess what? We eat these fish. Don’t think you’re immune if you are a vegetarian. Researchers from the University of Minnesota have estimated that over 90% of tap water contains micro plastics. These particles are so small they escape most filtering systems. They are found in bottled water as well. The effect of such particles on human health is so far unknown.
Can these bags be recycled? Yes, but it takes some effort on our part. Notice the little triangle with arrows on plastic products. Often it is difficult to read, but if you squint real hard you can read a number. This number does not tell you how they are to be recycled but merely what they are made of. Most grocery bags have the number four, which indicates “low-density polyethylene.” How they get recycled usually depends on local ordinances. In Baltimore, they cannot be thrown in with the weekly mixed recycling. The bags are not easily separated from other recyclables and often jam the machines used in the recycling process. Over 90% of plastic is never recycled. It is estimated that each person uses 400 bags a year. According to the last census, Glen neighborhood had over 7,000 people. That means we use about three-million bags a year in that neighborhood alone!
So what can we do about this? The most environmentally sound thing we can do, as individuals, is to use fewer plastic bags. That is why we try to remember to bring our own reusable cloth shopping bags to the stores. Not only does this greatly decrease the number of plastic bags we end up with, but reusable bags hold more than most plastic bags, so we have fewer trips from the car to the kitchen. Also, they are stronger, so we don’t have as much breakage. Do you ever give to charities? Many of them give tote bags as a thank you gift.
Another thing we can do is to take advantage of the recycling services of many of the grocery stores in our area. The recycle bins are usually located as you walk into the store. They are later processed separately from other plastics. What happens to the recycled bags? They can be melted down and made into new plastic bags. They are also used in the manufacture of composite lumber, floor tiles, and other products. Some research is being done in the field of nanotechnology to use the recycled plastic to produce nanotube membranes for energy storage and medical devices. Check to see if the grocery stores you use recycle grocery bags and, if they don’t, encourage them to do so.
Some jurisdictions, have banned the use of plastic bags, or charge a few cents a bag, to encourage reusable bags. Maryland and Baltimore City have proposed legislation addressing this issue, but none of the proposals has been passed. We can make our state and local representatives aware of the problem, though there is a powerful plastic lobby which works against such legislation. Hopefully, with awareness of consumers like use, that will change in the future.
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The following videos are available on YouTube. The sources of the videos are in parentheses.
- The Humble, Horrible Plastic Bag (The Economist): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsOZhJIpkFU
- How We Can Keep Plastics Out of Our Ocean (National Geographic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQTUWK7CM-Y
- Are Microplastics in our Water Becoming a Macroproblem? (National Geographic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHCgA-n5wRw
- Turning 315 billion Pounds of Plastic Ocean Pollution into Sea-Saving Art (PBS and Smithsonian): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNEJhPj_yUY
- Plastic Ocean (United Nations): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju_2NuK5O-E
- Ocean Today video: Our Debris Filling the Sea (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJo-DAcXtzo
- What Really Happens to the Plastic You Throw Away? (TED talk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6xlNyWPpB8
- Trash-Free Waters (Environmental Protection Agency): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqAaeQ5ylKw
