Plastic bags Part Two

                In this installment, I would like to take a closer look at the impacts to wildlife, how your plastic bag here in Tennessee, can make it into the ocean, and some alternatives to plastic. You might not think it is possible for plastic bags from land locked Tennessee, to make it all the way to the ocean, but you would be wrong. I know this picture is pretty small and grainy but you can still follow along.

1.      Your plastic bag gets thrown in the trash.

2.       Then it can blow into a storm drain.

3.      The storm drain empties into a larger body of water like a river or lake.

4.       From there it is on the fast track to the ocean.

It is important to know that just because you live a long way from the ocean, does not mean that you do not have a direct impact on it. Once the plastic is in the ocean, it is carried by the current to the oceans dumpsters. Large sections of open ocean that are full of plastics and trash because of the currents. There are five of these garbage patches in the ocean. 1. The South Atlantic Patch located between the coasts of South America and Africa. 2. The Indian Ocean Patch located in the Indian Ocean, off the western coast of Australia. 3. The North Pacific Patch, which is a conglomerate of three patches, spanning almost the entire stretch of ocean between North America’s West Coast and China. 4. The South Pacific Patch located in between the eastern coast of Australia and South America.  5. And finally the North Atlantic patch off the East coast of North America. The animals that swim through these waters are particularly vulnerable to harmful plastics.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/22/plastic-ocean-garbage_n_5191294.html

 

            The North Pacific Patch is fondly called the Giant Pacific Garbage Patch. It is an area the size of Texas, and has debris as far down as 20 feet down the water column. It is estimated that the giant pacific garbage patch is home to 3.5 million tons of trash and it is estimated that it could double in the next 10 years.   Researchers have estimated that for every 2.2 pounds of plankton, a common marine food source, there is 13.2 pounds of plastic. And while I am focusing on plastic bag pollution, there are many other kinds of trash in the ocean.

                The problem that sea turtles have with plastic bags, is that they look ridiculously similar to their main source of food, jellyfish. “Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales, and other marine mammals, and more than 1 million seabirds die each year from ocean pollution and ingestion or entanglement in marine debris. Marine debris is manmade waste that is directly or indirectly disposed of in oceans, rivers, and other waterways.” This is the sad reality for many marine animals.

The plastics break down into smaller plastic pieces, they never truly break down. These small pieces of plastic are called micro plastics. These micro plastics are ingested by fish and the toxins in the plastic are leeched into the meat of the fish. Then you eat the fish for dinner one night. You don’t know it, but you just ingested the toxins of the plastic bag you didn’t recycle years ago. And then it comes full circle.

http://www.seeturtles.org/ocean-plastic

Turtles live very long lives, and have a long maturation period. This is worrying some people because it is becoming more evident that younger turtles are more likely to eat plastic bags. This is a concern because if a young turtle eats plastic and does not make it to maturity then the turtles are in real danger. In a strange turn of events, a study shows that crowded costal turtles are less likely ingest harmful plastics, than their open ocean dwelling cousins. This doesn’t mean it is now ok to pollute the coast lines. One study shows that leatherback and green sea turtles are most susceptible to eating plastic and then dying.  

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/blogs/rare-sea-turtles-eating-plastic-at-record-rate

There are alternatives to plastic bags. The most common alternatives are paper bags and cloth bags. For a long time paper bags were considered the bad guy because you had to chop down a tree to make a paper bag. May people said that plastic was better for the environment that paper. Little did they know that they were so wrong. Yes you have to cut down a tree to produce a paper bag, but if you look at them comparatively, the paper bag id the lesser of two evils.

The other common alternative is cloth chopping bags. They are decorated for every holiday and occasion in hopes to entice hoppers to buy them. They are reusable. Many people use them for more than just grocery shopping. A girl that I work with uses one instead of a purse. And when they are used for their original purpose they hold a lot of groceries in one bag. There are some reusable bags that will stretch out and clip on either side of your shopping cart for easy fill up. Granted the clasps on these bags are plastic.

Even though there is not a ban on plastic bags in Tennessee there are a few stores that are plastic bag free. The two that come to mind are Aldi’s and Sam’s Club. If you have never shopped in one of these stores, you are encouraged to either bring your own bags to pack your groceries in, or find an empty box around the store to put your groceries in. if you fail to do either if these things you have to buy a reusable bag, in the case of Aldi’s, or carry your groceries out one by one.  

Recently a new take on the grocery store came to Chicago. The store is called BYOC or Bring Your Own Container .the concept is to bring containers from home and shop in bulk quantities. This does one better than limiting plastics via plastic grocery bags. This type of store eliminates all containers, as you bring your own reusable containers from home. This seems a little impractical for everyday shopping but for the items that you know you buy a lot of and use frequently, this could really help a community cut back on trash in general. While the people of Chicago have embraced this grocery store whole heartedly, here are some concerns, mainly health concerns. There is a reason you normally can’t bring your own containers into a restaurant or grocery store. If someone brings in a container that is not properly cleaned, and then precede to touch everything in the store with the nasty container, the rest of the shoppers are put at risk of contamination from that one dirty container. This is totally a feasible option if everyone is very careful with what they bring into the store.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-06-12/news/ct-met-bring-own-container-20110612_1_reusable-grocery-bags-contamination-containers

Finally, if you still insist on using plastic shopping bags then please do yourself, and the turtles, a favor. Please bring your bags back to the store with you the next time you shop and pot them in the plastic recycling. Most stores have them at the store. But when you are throwing your trash away outside of the store make sure your trash doesn’t go into the recycling bin!

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