Plastic Bags: a not-so-disposable problem, and the aggregate of small solutions

From reuseit.com, here are some  Fast Facts on Plastic Bags:

Market Tote from GraniteGear.com

  • 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year, worldwide.
  • About 1 million plastic bags are used every minute.
  • A single plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.
  • More than 3.5 million tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps were discarded in 2008.
  • Only 1 in 200 plastic bags in the UK are recycled (BBC).
  • The U.S. goes through 100 billion single-use plastic bags. This costs retailers about $4 billion a year.
  • Plastic bags are the second-most common type of ocean refuse, after cigarette butts (2008)
  • Plastic bags remain toxic even after they break down.
  • Every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.

We’re talking about, we suspect, two main uses: bags used in the transportation of goods – and bags used to transport “waste,” including the garbage bags themselves, discarded shopping bags – and sometimes shopping bags re-used as garbage bags.

Tara Lohan, in The Great Plastic Bag Plague,  (On Alternet, 2007), cites industry sources for the proposition that American retailers spend $4 billion/year on plastic bags – adding, of course, to the cost of goods – without reflecting their full environmental cost. Lohan cites other sources for the proposition that 12 million barrels of oil are used , annually, to produce plastic bags used in the United States. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that average daily use of petroleum products in the United States – the world’s largest consumer – is 18,771,000 barrels/day. Assuming we’re not in a leap year – 1/365th is .0027 (rounded) of our energy consumption. Put another way, slightly over one-quarter of one percent (0.27%). And 12 million barrels would be about two-thirds of that.  Thought of another way – 18 million barrels per day – 365 days per year – 6.5 billion (6,570,000,000).  So plastic bags amount to 0.18% of our petroleum consumption.  1 component of  6,570 equal components. So what difference does it make if you accept a plastic bag, or bring your own reusable bag?

In WW II ((One of the ways in which the  Allies gradually wore down the Axis was by depriving it of – no surprise, we hope – petroleum.  Richard Overy, in Why The Allies Won, contends that Allies’ gradual degradation of Axis energy supplies made a great contribution to the eventual Allied Victory.))     , three million soldiers retook the continent (the invasion of Western Europe, sometimes referred to as Operation Overlord)  during and after D-Day. Each soldier’s contribution amounted to 0.12%  One in three million – without counting the various Resistance groups, support troops and civilians in the United Kingdom and the United States.  Total U.S. troop count: 16.5 million. The Philippines suffered over 50,000 military deaths alone. (For total WW II casualties, see Wikipedia entry of that name).

So  – the aggregate of many small, coordinated contributions is dramatic. Get a reusable shopping bag, and use it. In future posts, we hope to point out some good deals on reusable bags, and revisit the principle of aggregating small acts. For an always-brilliant take on individual action about energy, particularly heating, check out Ellen Honigstock’s  ToePrint Project.

And:

Our earlier post, International Herald Tribune: Ireland rids itself of a plastic nuisance – Ireland’s early success with a small tax on disposable bags.