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| This is my favorite cloth bag for shopping. It's a hand-me-down diaper bag used by someone who shares my name but is now a teenager so no longer needs it. |
I want to say one word to you. Just one word...Plastics!...There's a great future in plastics.
Turns out that wasn't the case for Dustin's character's future. But it was for ours. We are drowning in plastic. We've all seen beautiful sea creatures being strangled by plastic bags. And we all want to do something about those islands of plastic in our oceans.
But it's hard.
For years Dave and I have taken our cloth bags to the supermarket. At home, we recycle in three different containers. One for paper, and another for solid plastics. Plus another is just for plastic bags (even though we try not to use them.)
Here's the thing. When I buy meat or cleaning products the bagger always wraps them in plastic prior to putting them in my canvas bag. By the way, the meat is shrink-wrapped in plastic before it goes into the plastic bag. And sometimes the plastic bottle for cleaning products has its own handle. Why should it even need a bag? Every place I go somebody wants to give me a plastic bag. At least some of the vendors at the farmer's market use recycled plastic. And how depressing is it to find scores of plastic bottles and containers on our kitchen and bathroom shelves?
The point is, we can't do this on our own. However, help is on the way. The state of New York is banning plastic bags. Currently that state goes through 23 billion bags a year. But for this to work New Yorkers will have to be provided with healthy-for-the-planet alternatives. This will help all of us.
It will make only a dent in our world wide plastic crisis, but it's a start. In the meantime I'm going to try to do better.
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