On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:53:47 -0500, "Viva"
privacy.net> wrote:
>Starting today - Earth Day - the US supermarket Whole Foods will no longer
>offer plastic bags. Also, I read that some counties in CA have a bill before
>their lawmakers to ban plastic shopping bags, period.
Supermarkets here are starting to charge people for them. Netto, for
instance, has done so for years already. Others offer an "everlasting"
bag that you can (free) exchange for a new one when it wears out.
>I hate the ugly things...as I drive along my beautiful green countryside I
>see them flying from trees, fences and telephone poles. Is it so in your
>country?
Yes, it is. Sort of. They tend to catch on wires, trees and hedges,
but it isn't a monster problem like it is in some countries. There was
a picture in the paper today of a river in, ummm, Thailand I think it
was, and you couldn't see the water for the rubbish in it.
>They will remain in landfills for eons, along with all the other plastic
>that doesn't degrade. Don't get me started on the billions of plastic water
>bottles every year...or disposable diapers (forgive me busy mothers). We can
>send a man to the moon but can't seem to invent a plastic that will rot.
>
>Although, I did hear about someone trying to make "plastic" bags out of
>cornstarch....
We get "biodegradable" bags everywhere now. They are supposed to start
degrading after about 18 months, but IME they take more like three
years before falling to pieces[1]. I don't actually know what the
implications of the chemicals used in them are. Somehow I suspect that
it is safer for the environment to leave the plastic safely in plastic
form so nasty things can't leach into the aquifers.
Speaking of which, much is made of stuff being "carbon neutral"
nowadays, and people talk glibly about carbon capture and storage and
what's that other word... sequestration was it?. Anyway maybe, just
maybe, one really good way of causing carbon to be stored would be to
make billions of plastic bags and bury them somewhere! :-)
>I am also aware that we in the US are spoiled rotten by our supermarkets.
>Would it kill us to box/bag our own groceries and carry them to the car
>ourselves?
Car? You have a car? :-) I am continuing to resist the temptation to
get a car, for entirely environmental reasons. I use public transport
when I can, and I will hire a car when I can't.
[1] I found this out because I hung a bag full of light bulbs on a
hook, and three years later tried to take it down, and twenty or so
light bulbs went boinkety-boink on the floor. No breakages, luckily.
