The mentality of bagging every single item

Since I moved from Austria to California I am facing a problem that I have never had before. I am fighting the store’s urge to force plastic bags upon me that simply increase my waste at home and build up so much that I cannot reuse them at the rate that they are given to me.

If I buy an item at a store they immediately want to bag it. Here are three recent encounters:

1. I went to a major electronic store and at the register I told the clerk not to bag my purchased item that was very small and I could easily put in my purse. But he blankly looked at me and bagged it anyway. My husband told me, just to let him bag my item, otherwise it may confuse the clerk.
2. In another major electronic store I bought an item that was already in a box with a handle on it to be carried easily. Again the clerk tried to force the big box into a plastic bag. I told her, there is no need to, it has a handle! After the incident in the previous store, I wondered if I might get in trouble at the exit where they check your receipt, but she told me it is OK, you don’t need a bag to pass.
3. At the grocery store my husband and I went through the self check out without bagging our items and the young woman who monitors the self check out area asked us as we were leaving: “No bags!?” I told her: “No, they are just too much of a waste!” The second time we went there, we were at the “regular” register and my husband told the young man, who normally bags the items to just put the items into the cart without bagging them. The young woman who scanned our items remembered me and said: “You are the lady who hates bags!” like I was crazy. I told her, no, I don’t simply “hate” bags! I was shocked that this young woman and man, who were barely twenty, had no concept of environmental issues. I told them I use reusable bags or foldable baskets, that are more stable, hold more items and are easy to carry. The young man asked me how it is done in Austria because he simply could not understand how we transport groceries when we do not have a grocery store employee that automatically bags the items. I told him we put our groceries back into the cart and put the groceries afterwards into foldable baskets in our cars. These baskets are more common in Austria because they are sold at very low prices. After telling him how people in Austria handle groceries he had an expression of realisation on his face.

Heal the Bay (2008) stated in their “FAQ’s about Plastic Grocery Bags” how big the problem is:

• “Californians use more than 19 billion plastic grocery bags and merchandise bags each year, roughly 552 bags per person. This usage generates 147,038 tons of unnecessary waste — enough to stretch around the globe over 250 times.
• Californians throw away over 600 plastic bags per second.⁴
• California taxpayers spend $25 million to collect and landfill plastic bag waste each year. That figure does not include external costs, e.g., resource extraction and depletion, quality of life issues, economic loss due to plastic bag litter and human health expenses.⁵
• U.S. consumers use 100 billion plastic bags annually, which is the energy equivalent of 12 million barrels of oil.”

I really do approve of the “top to bottom” governmental action forcing standards and regulations upon the industry with bans and bills, but it is also necessary to build awareness in every single one of us. For this action it is not necessary to pass a single bill, it is to give people advice on what to use instead of plastic bags and point out the advantages, so that people change their behaviour automatically. After all what good is a solution of banning plastic bags without advising people what to use instead. If every single one of us were to change our behaviour, we would be changing the future because we would pass-on this new behaviour and understanding to the next generation to carry it on.

One solution can be a PSA campaign, 30 to 40 seconds of public service announcements. A television PSA could run as follows: A couple is going out to a fancy restaurant to have a romantic dinner. They order and the waiter brings their meal to the table. As he lifts the cover to their plates they are in shock to see plastic bags on their plates. As they look around they realize that everyone else has plastic bags on their plates. This scenario refers to the current situation taking place in the Pacific Ocean right next to California, where what is known as the world’s biggest plastic soup stretches out from Hawaii to Japan. It refers to the food chain, where sea animals ingest the plastics and it works its way up the food chain until it finally reaches man and we are having it as dinner. This will educate the public and it will help in the efforts to pass initiatives to stop using plastic bags. An example of a powerful PSA TV spot for traffic is the awarded Austrian PSA that is now shown also in other European countries: http://www.bmvit.gv.at/video/gurtenrettenleben2005.mpeg. Furthermore the Austrian government works together with schools and colleges and sets a competition for the best photo and slogan for billboards. The winners get an award and are listed on their governmental website and they get to show their prizewinning poster on billboards. The advantage is not only to create awareness among children and future generations but to build a stronger bond between the government and future voters.

These are simple single solutions that would change a lot but would not cost a lot.

Sources:

Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie (2008): „Fernsehspot ‚Gurte retten Leben‘ “, http://www.bmvit.gv.at/video/gurtenrettenleben2005.mpeg, last accessed 2008-03-24

Heal the Bay (2008): “FAQ’s About Plastic Grocery Bags”,

http://www.healthebay.org/assets/pdfdocs/PPI/FAQs_PlasticBags.pdf, last accessed 2008-03-24

The Independent (2008): “The world’s rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan”,

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html, last accessed 2008-03-24

Additional Note:

This letter was originally written to the Governor of California and furthemore also sent in reply to the Argus article “It’s in the bag – Saving the planet in style, one tote at a time” published on Saturday, March 15, 2008 by Aleta Watson: awatson@mercurynews.com.

Update 2008-08-10: Further reading recommendation

Read Roz Savage Blog entry “Day 66: Plastic Soup” about her thoughts of plastic pollution while rowing as the first woman the Pacific Ocean to not only set a record but also to make people aware to live a greener  life on land and bluer life on the ocean! :-) Follow this strong and inspiring woman on her blog and podcast!

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