More and more of us make sure to bring reusable shopping bags to pack up our groceries at the supermarket. But what about when you're in the produce aisle and buying a dozen apples, a bunch of asparagus or kale — how many single use grocery bags do you pull out, only to discard them once home?
Writing on Good, Sarah Lawkow notes that a movement to stop using single-use plastic bags for produce is in its infancy. But all those filmy plastic bags add to the more than 31 million tons of plastic waste the U.S. produces in a year, according to the EPA. In 2010, only 12 percent of plastic bags, sacks and wraps was recycled: We can do better.
Brooklyn's Park Slope Food Co-op has called on customers to stop using the bags while some farmers' markets offer biodegradable single-use bags. In most places, customers are on their own to forego produce-aisle plastics. There are many options: Laskow lists quite a few (many via Etsy including several made from mesh), as well as some retailers that offer produce bags. Some bags are made from cotton and others from starch from plant sources so they can be composted (noted by Green-Mary). Rodale also suggests turning “retired bed linens, thin tea towels, and mismatched cloth napkins” as well as old t-shirts into reusable produce bags.
There is also the simple option of just putting produce into your reusable grocery bag. After all, the produce needs to be washed once you've unpacked it in your kitchen (as does the reusable grocery bag itself).
Plastic bags were only introduced in the 1970s. In 2008, Americans used some 102 billion according to the United States International Trade Commission (a small improvement: in 2006, some 109.8 billion bags were used). But I still remember a time when no store clerk ever asked “paper or plastic” in the checkout lane because paper was the only option. In just about three decades, we've gone from using just a few plastic bags to billions. Surely we can find other ways to bring the vegetables home, as generations before us once did.
2012年4月8日星期日
2012年2月23日星期四
Young resident saving the planet with paper bags
He's only ten but Abdul Muqeet Mannan is already winning awards for trying to rid his neighbourhood in Abu Dhabi of plastic bags. Zenifer Khaleel interviews the ‘paper bag boy'
Abdul Muqeet remembers the date: February 2, 2010. He was eight and in grade three at St Joseph's School, Abu Dhabi, when his teacher told him and his classmates that they were introducing a ‘No plastic day'.
She gave the pupils a short talk on the importance of preserving the planet for the future and how plastic, one of the biggest threats to the environment, was polluting the earth and causing untold damage.
Back home he asked his mother, Andaleeb Mannan, more about plastic. She reiterated that it was a major pollutant that apart from taking hundreds of years to degrade, could also end up in the waterways and pose a threat to marine life. Plastic is also a major threat to animals such as camels, which have died after ingesting it. So we should reduce or discontinue our usage of plastic bags, she told him.
"But," Abdul asked, confused, "how will the grocery deliver my chocolates if they can't use plastic bags?" His mother laughed and replied that maybe they could use bags made of some other material. That set him thinking. Abdul began looking around for substitutes and the first thing that caught his eye was a pile of newspapers lying on the table.
"I thought, ‘Why can't paper be used to pack stuff?"' he says. "I wondered why I didn't think about it before." Getting down to work, he grabbed a few sheets of paper, some glue and began making paper bags.
"Initially, I could make bags which could hold a reasonable amount of stuff or weight," he recalls. But the little boy, who beat 22,000 people from 62 countries to be one of the ten winners of the Abu Dhabi Awards, persevered until he mastered the art. "I went on the internet and looked for sites which would tell me how to make them," he says.
"I made about 20 bags and the next day after school went to the grocery store near my house and asked the man at the counter if he would consider using my bags to pack stuff," he says.
"The shopkeepers were initially sceptical," recalls his mother. "But they agreed to use his bags just to humour him."
What they weren't prepared for was his persistence. The next day Abdul was back with more bags. "I'll get you more as soon as you are through with these," he told the owner.
Abdul Muqeet remembers the date: February 2, 2010. He was eight and in grade three at St Joseph's School, Abu Dhabi, when his teacher told him and his classmates that they were introducing a ‘No plastic day'.
She gave the pupils a short talk on the importance of preserving the planet for the future and how plastic, one of the biggest threats to the environment, was polluting the earth and causing untold damage.
Back home he asked his mother, Andaleeb Mannan, more about plastic. She reiterated that it was a major pollutant that apart from taking hundreds of years to degrade, could also end up in the waterways and pose a threat to marine life. Plastic is also a major threat to animals such as camels, which have died after ingesting it. So we should reduce or discontinue our usage of plastic bags, she told him.
"But," Abdul asked, confused, "how will the grocery deliver my chocolates if they can't use plastic bags?" His mother laughed and replied that maybe they could use bags made of some other material. That set him thinking. Abdul began looking around for substitutes and the first thing that caught his eye was a pile of newspapers lying on the table.
"I thought, ‘Why can't paper be used to pack stuff?"' he says. "I wondered why I didn't think about it before." Getting down to work, he grabbed a few sheets of paper, some glue and began making paper bags.
"Initially, I could make bags which could hold a reasonable amount of stuff or weight," he recalls. But the little boy, who beat 22,000 people from 62 countries to be one of the ten winners of the Abu Dhabi Awards, persevered until he mastered the art. "I went on the internet and looked for sites which would tell me how to make them," he says.
"I made about 20 bags and the next day after school went to the grocery store near my house and asked the man at the counter if he would consider using my bags to pack stuff," he says.
"The shopkeepers were initially sceptical," recalls his mother. "But they agreed to use his bags just to humour him."
What they weren't prepared for was his persistence. The next day Abdul was back with more bags. "I'll get you more as soon as you are through with these," he told the owner.
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