BAG THE PLASTIC

Being a dog owner I say I have an excuse to collect plastic bags. Mostly I get them from the two newspapers delivered to our house, which continue to come wrapped in plastic long after the rainy season.

Like many responsible people I’ve tried to wean our household of plastic dependency, although I’m still not convinced that cloth veggie bags do as good as job keeping the broccoli crisp. Yet, I’ve seen the pictures of floating plastic sludge in the Pacific said to be twice the size of Texas, and know I’m partially to blame.

I do like the idea of toting my own reusable go-to-market shopping bag. Makes me think I’m in Europe with the little Old World string bag just the right size for a baguette, some cheese and a bottle of wine.

And we have no lack of reusable enviro-friendly shopping bags. We have shopping bags made from canvas, oil cloth, straw, burlap and what claims to be heavy duty recycled plastic with assorted store logos. In all colors, enough to go with every outfit.

But I forget to take them with me. I walk right out the door to go to the store and leave them behind. Or discover they’re in the other car. And then I’m at the store apologizing to the grocery clerk for being neglectful and spending another buck or two on one of the store’s own reusable bags that match the same ones I have at home. Or, even worse, guiltily accepting more plastic bags.

I think I’m typically American. Many people I know are bad about the bags. It takes a long time to change habits, to go from knowing to doing. And that is why they’re getting tough with us. In San Francisco there’s a ban on stores using plastic bag. Soon it may come to our part of the Bay Area, or the state will decide that if you use, you lose and make it a law that customers have to pay up to 25 cents to get a plastic bag they don’t want and know they shouldn’t have.

Why is this so difficult? We don’t leave home without our car keys and wallet. We don’t get as far beyond the front sidewalk without our cell phone and sunglasses. So why do we forget the bag?

Where I live you now can recycle plastic bags. You can take all those bags, even ones from the cleaners and gather them into big bag, tie them up and pop them into the blue recycle bin.

That eases some guilt, but I’m not sure it solves the plastic problem. The recycling people say that the bags go off to a recycling manufacturer to turn into decking and carpets. I know that repurposing can work. I have a very cute clutch bag made out of old beer can flip tops. But giving us an easy way to dispose of plastic will not end our plastic dependency.

So to celebrate Earth Day I resolve to tote that bag. Hang them by the front door, keep them in the car.

And then I have to switch from newspaper bags to biodegradable doggy-do bags. If we’re going green, the dog’s going too.

Susan Swartz
wwwjuicytomatoes.com