I just got back from visiting my hometown of Washington, D.C., which recently passed a bag tax wherein retailers citywide charge $.05 for each plastic or paper shopping bag you require. More and more cities are passing similar legislation against disposable shopping bags, particularly because it is increasingly common for U.S. seashores and riverbanks to look like the one above—especially after a storm.
Laws against throw-away shopping bags make good sense if you consider that every year in the U.S., we consume over 380 billion plastic bags, of which over 4 billion end up littering our land, rivers, lakes and oceans, killing hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales, seals, seabirds and other marine mammals that mistake these discarded bags for food. Plastic bags also require 12 million barrels of oil to produce each year, take hundreds of years to decompose in a landfill—or worse—add to the ever-growing Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Anything we can do to phase out their usage quickly would be good thing.
One of thousands albatrosses who die every year with bellies full of our plastic trash. © Chris Jordan
In many ways, paper bags are even worse than plastic bags. Paper sacks generate 70 percent more air pollution and 50 times more water pollution than plastic bags. And paper bags don’t decompose any faster than plastic bags, once they end up in a landfill.
The answer to the question, “Paper or plastic?” is: “Neither, thank you, I brought my own!” Let’s face it, all those grocery bags you’ve saved under the sink will only last so long. A shopping bag you enjoy using and reusing is your most sustainable option.
While any tote bag will do, my favorite reusable bag is the Envirosax bag. Lightweight polyester, portable and waterproof, these unique bags hold the equivalent of 2 supermarket plastic bags, yet they fold down small enough to stow into a glove compartment, pocket or handbag. They fold down so small, in fact, that I always have few on hand for when I’m at the drugstore, the mall, or even making a spontaneous stop at the convenience store. (Do you remember to bring your bags to these places, too?)
Sexy and sustainable!
I also like Envirosax because they are the only reusable bag I’ve found where the bag handles fit over my shoulder, which is important when carrying the groceries and the toddler into the house. My favorite part though, is that they come in dozens of distinctive, stylish patterns—or solid colors to suit a man’s tastes. (Though my male friends say they like Chico bags better.)
Reusable bags can make shopping a little more fun and lot more eco-friendly. What more could you want?
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As part of the effort to implement that law, I’ve never been prouder to live in the District of Columbia. And it’s working. The stores are reporting far fewer bags consumed. For me, the biggest change is to walk into a place and hear cashiers routinely asking customers if they want a bag — instead of automatically assuming so.
Thanks for your work, Alan! I’m so glad my hometown has been among the first of great green cities in the U.S. to help us phase these bags out once and for all.