Coming from a city where the use of Green Bags is exceedingly common and really, a way of life in the last 3 years, I have had to consciously restrain myself at checkout counters. Heck, even with my mother. (she hasn't heard the end of my complaining)
Example of the mentality:
Mum: Look dear, I'm using the recyclable bags now because you told me to.
Me: Oh great, mum!
~ watches as she takes a plastic container of jackfruit, already packed into another plastic bag by the market lady, brings it to the counter to be put in a plastic bag with the grapes, and then she puts it into the recyclable bag ~
Mum: There look. It's all in the bag.
Me: ....
The whole city is mad. At the checkout counter today the dude packed as if he was shitting out plastic bags.
1 5-pack of noodles. Seal the bag. (they have this sticky label thing to make sure you're not stealing... like that works)
2 pieces of vegetable. Seal the bag.
1 pack of biscuits and 2 sticks of butter. Seal the bag.
I seriously wanted to whack him out of the way and pack the bags myself. Bad enough you're using plastic bags [Mum: i'm running out of bin-liners already] but WHY? Why pack so little into one?
My latest theory is that there's some sort of plastic bag manufacturing monopoly in this city. There's too much money in it for the government to shut it down. AAaaaRRRggHhH!!!
[haha! proven! Australian Bureau Statistics show that Malaysia, with 20% of the share, is Australia's 3rd largest plastic importer!]
Oh yeah, and Malaysians just don't care.
(why save plastic bag? Supermarkets give free wat.. Take more!)
Well, think about this. In Ireland, shoppers are required to pay for plastic bags and this has reduced consumption by 90%!! The Plastax, explained exceptionally well in this article by Reusable Bags website (yes, i know they're in it for the money too) , has saved 18, 000 000 liters of oil! Less animals choking on the stray plastic bags. Less oil being used. More to hand over to your children, childrens' children, yada yada yada.
You catch my drift.
And here's something i didn't know either. Plastic bags CAN be recycled. And they're made into:
- bags
- railway ties
- traffic cones
- decking
- patio furniture
- and even PLASTIC WOOD
Anyway, here are the cinchers.
The case for NOT using plastic bags. (in point form)
- They don't break down quickly. When they do, the chemicals just become smaller units but they still pollute the land/water they're in.
- Up to (and probably over) 100 000 marine animals are killed every year as a result of plastic bags. Some think the bags are jellyfish and ingest them (thereby choking if not strangling their internal organs for a slow painful death). Others get entangled in them and suffocate or starve.
- Plastic bags clogging drains have been known to cause floods, leading to loss of life in extreme cases. (e.g in Bangladesh)
- The world is round. The plastic bags you throw away on your street may end up off the coast of China, causing unthinkable environmental damage all along the way.
- Bags littered everywhere are just an eyesore.
Next time you shop, try to remember to bring a bag along. If you really don't think it's worth forking out the AUD 2 or RM 1, I will sponsor your bag. And please spread the word.
1 comment:
oh well it's funny how ppl don care about something that doesn't directly affect them. it's just the human nature. maybe they should start charging for plastic bags like they do in ALDI. and i should remember to bring along my safeway bags whenever i go shopping for groceries nowadays. we just have to make it a habit.
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