Buy a cloth bag and help stop plastic pollution
By Bard of Ely
Help fight marine pollution by plastic
You have probably heard that our oceans are filling up with plastic. This terrible situation is killing millions of marine animals and getting into the food chain leading back to us via the fish we eat.
Plastic cannot bio-degrade into anything more than smaller and smaller particles that end up in sand and end up floating about in the water where they are swallowed by fish and other sea creatures. Plastic bags and plastic items are mistaken for food and eaten by whales, turtles and sea birds with disastrous consequences because they cannot digest the plastic and cannot pass it through their bodies. Most of them die horrible deaths!
The plastic gets into the sea mainly from on the land. It gets washed down in rivers and also has been dumped with other trash directly into the ocean. Plastic litter on beaches ends up out at sea too and most plastic that goes into the oceans ends up in the five oceanic gyres where it accumulates. The biggest of these is twice the size of Texas and known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
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Cloth shopping bags
Buying a cloth bag helps
Explorer and environmentalist David de Rothschild is currently halfway across the Pacific Ocean with his crew on a catamaran made entirely from plastic bottles and dubbed The Plastiki.
David is raising awareness of the dangers to life caused by plastic that is polluting our oceans and environment and killing millions of marine animals and birds. He is also calling for a reduction in our use of plastic and for far more effort to be invested in recycling.
People ask what they can do to help, and they realise that the problem is incredibly vast and worldwide, however, there are things we can all do to at least help stop the situation getting even worse.
One thing we can do is to cut down on our use of plastic wherever possible, and, for example, if we normally use bottled water to stop using plastic bottled water but instead to keep it in a stainless steel bottle. Most shops these days are contributing to the plastic pollution problem by handing out millions of plastic shopping bags everyday. So another answer is to stop using their throwaway plastic bags and to take our own shopping bags.
There are many excellent cloth bags for sale that last a long time and are much sturdier than the flimsy plastic ones that often break. Shop around for a cloth or canvas shopping bag that suits you!
Cloth shopping bags often come with designs on them that allow you to make a personal statement about yourself and your views. I bought one that shows that I am a musician.
And I even got a free cloth shopping bag when I bought a month's supply of Royal Canin cat food. My cat Tiggy loves this food and I am happy to advertise Royal Canin by using one of their bags.
Buying and using a cloth shopping bag is helping reduce the use of plastic bags, and sending out a strong message to the shops: that the shoppers are prepared to bring their own bags and no longer want plastic bags.
By using a cloth shopping bag that everybody you pass by can see you are also sending out a message to them. You are suggesting that others might like getting their own shopping bags for a new way of shopping.
We the people are the ones who are going to help tackle the problem. The consumer is vital to the suppliers and shops and if we no longer want their plastic bags then they will have to change.
Copyright © 2010 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.
Footage of whale who died after eating plastic bags
Will you get your own cloth bag?
Will you be getting your own reusable bag?
See results without votingDavid de Rothschild, plastic pollution and the Plastiki links
- David de Rothschild's Plastiki was inspired by Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki
Inspired by the late Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his raft the Kon-Tiki, adventurer and environmentalist David de Rothschild came up with the idea for the Plastiki, a 60 ft katamaran made up entirely... - David de Rothschild has a new fansite on Facebook
It all began when I listened to the Alex Jones show when he had David Mayer de Rothschild on as his guest and was very rude to him. I found myself siding with David and ended up writing a hub here all about... - Plastic pollution and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Plastic is something we all use and so very many things are made of it or packaged in the material, but unfortunately a vast amount of it is getting thrown away in an irresponsible way and is becoming an... - Plastiki on Facebook
Facebook site for the Plastiki
Comments
When the wind blows here too you often see plastic bags flying about! Thank you for posting!
Smart idea. We should delete plastic as much as we can. Fabric is far better. Cotton, or other natural fibres.
I love this hub, I hope it may spread a 'bit of awareness toward the devastating problem of the plastic, from its production down to its bad products, such as the plastic bags...
Thank you, Aussieteacher and Varenya!
I heartily applaud this hub and I am following the voyage of the Plastiki closely-- thrilled he is bringing more attention to the giant Pacific garbage dump.
I've been using cloth bags for a couple of years now and also never buy water or soda in plastic bottles since I discovered the North Pacific Garbage patch. I've written about it too, not on Hubpages but on an environmental blog I contribute to. Here's one of my posts on the subject. http://www.peachygreen.com/going-green/plastic-is-
I've been using cloth bags and cardboard boxes for years to get my supplies from the shops. Plastic bags are the bane of modern society. Great hub
Thank you too, Robie2 and Jayjay40!
Great Hub, and great advise! Thanks for shining your light!
Thank you, Cathi!
I use any pastic bags for dog poop. I no longer accumlate the millions I used to though
And I still use them for cat poo from the litter tray. But the bulk of my shopping I do with cloth bags now.
Hey Bard - this is great advice! I bought on in JC Penny recently and it's really pretty and it was only 2 dollars. I use it when I go to the grocery and it's very handy! Great hub
Excellent news!
Bard of Ely, like you I recycle plastic bags for dog poop. I have about 15 reusable bags from the supermarket. My problem is leaving the bags in the car. I end up buying a new one at checkout. Good hub!
Thank you for posting!
Bard, great hub. I agree and I am using cloth bags. I love them and they don't rip!
Yes, they are so much better! Thank you for posting!
I've been using canvas bags for shopping for a while now.
That said I wonder if it really saves the planet. I always used to recycle my plastic shopping bags and use them as bin liners. This is because even if you have a wheelie bin the only way to keep it clean is to use bin liners and of course if it's a communal wheelie bin not only is it polite to keep it clean, councils often demand the use of plastic refuse sacks inside wheelie bins for health and safety reasons.
Of course this means since I have fewer plastic shopping bags I can reuse I now have to buy bin liners. So my use of canvas bags has probably not reduced the amount of plastic I throw away in fact it may have increased it given bin liners are larger than the plastic shopping bags I used to recycle.
Of course then there's the aspect recycling itself has vastly increased the use of plastic bags because you have to use a different colour bag for different types of rubbish. Which although it may save the councils time and resources in sorting refuse it increases the numbers of plastic bags being thrown away.
On top of this there is of course all the resources necessary to make canvas bags, and the increased use of paper in making disposable bags, which even if it comes from sustainable sources still entails chopping down more trees.
So I wonder if there is any hope for the planet. Being green is undoubtedly well intentioned. But if all it does is create massive inefficiency in human methodology and waste even more resources what's the point?
That said I have designed 347 canvas bags on Zazzle and I think there's some point in buying a nice canvas bag even if there is no hope one can enjoy life more with a nice canvas bag :)
The main points are that nearly every piece of plastic ever manufactured still exists somewhere in the environment even if it has now been broken down into sand sized particles! This planet is stuck with the stuff! It cannot biodegrade so any reduction in the total amount is a help! Secondly, plastic bags kill turtles and whales that swallow them! One plastic bag can kill a turtle if it blocks its gut! Other plastic items kill seabirds and are pushing albatrosses towards extinction! It is so bad that in some parts of the ocean there are six parts of plastic particles to one plankton! Thirdly, plastic in the sea accumulates additional toxins and these end up in the food chain and in us!
I agree that plastic rubbish bags are bad. We used to have metal rubbish bins that men emptied - remember those?
Canvas bags are much better because they are reusable and biodegradeable - plastic is not!
Thank you for posting, keep using the canvas bags and good luck selling your designs!
Yup that is the best way. We only use cloth bags when we go do our shopping rituals. Whenever we are given plastic bags they immediately go into recycling bin. Your right about them blowing around our cities, I see that often. And the carnage in our oceans is deplorable. Many countries use our oceans, rivers and lakes for dumping grounds of their toxic wastes, how sad is that?
Our poor water inhabitants are being killed off due to this massive problem of dumping into their world all of these pollutants. Thanks for the share. Peace
Thank you, Saddlerider1!
I agree there's too much plastic being discarded. I suppose the real solution would be to recycle all recyclable plastics and not discard any of it into the environment.
Yes, that would be a big help and also if the biodegradeable plastics were being used - they do exist! Plastic bags are being banned in some places, (California I think is one) which is another partial answer. No one seems to know how to get rid of all the mess that is already here though. We would need large numbers of trawlers in the oceans catching plastic instead of fish! But who is going to pay for that?
Lots of useful information in this and the other hub on plastic pollution, I have linked my page to them hope that is OK. Voted this up and useful.
Yes, thank you for doing so!
Terrific and informative article, Steve and thanks. I've purchased enough recycled cloth bags to take on groceries for 2 weeks or more, at one time. I love them, as opposed to plastic. If I happen to forget them at home, which I truly get angry when I'm in a rush and do that, I use the plastic ones I get to reline my small trash cans. Great job!!
Thank you, Lea!
Thanks you have given a lot information about plastic but we want information in Hindi
I am afraid I don't speak that language!
BJBenson 2 years ago
You are so right. In Italy we used wicker baskets at the open markets.In Turkey they used plastic bags like they were going out of style! When the wind blows there,expect to see a bag to fly by.