Most individuals familiar with the acronym BYOB have been raised to believe its connotation indicates to bring your own booze or beer as an easy reminder to guests of a party or social gathering. Though these four iconic letters have thoroughly been made of use over time, the meaning of the second B has transformed the entire definition within the “green community” and many environmentally conscious countries across the globe. The “Bring Your Own Bag” movement has already been implemented in foreign countries outside North America creating action against the energy and resources wasted when creating paper or plastic bags, as well as creating awareness in regards to the harm our environment is enduring when the one-use carriers are travelled to monstrous landfills to never biodegrade and emit toxins into our atmosphere and soil. Though this development has encountered arguments referring to the impossibilities of always possessing a reusable bag, or the “inconvenience” of keeping recycling in mind, Bring Your Own Bag will allow the countries, communities, and individuals unaware of our Earth’s dire state to realize every single bag used and thrown away makes a bigger impact than their previous thoughts.
Within North America, the average person will make use of a plastic bag never pondering where the carrier will venture to or how it will make an impact on our environment. Our society has gotten into a routine of accepting the unneeded amount of bags used to hold our purchases, taking the items bought to a destination and unconsciously throwing the plastic bag into a larger trash can to start the process again the next day. People carelessly toss their plastic or paper bag, yet don’t realize the convenience the bag once had comes with a price to our planet. Plastic bags can take between 15 and 1000 years to break down in the environment. They don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade by becoming smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways which pollute our soil, rivers, lakes and oceans. If our continuous use of these bags persists, the hazardous waste emitting toxic gases into the air will not only cause harm to our environment but endanger our global population’s own well-being causing potential health risks if it hasn’t already in the neighboring communities surrounding landfills.
Before traveling to a landfill, or even to the store where an individual can use the plastic bag for their needs, the one of a kind plastic bag must be produced. The creation of plastic bags takes a vast amount of oil and consumes large amounts of energy to manufacture. After thousands of these bags are created, they are shipped or driven to locations miles away contributing to the wrongly high carbon emission to breathable air ratio our lungs breathe in every day. For an item used for only about ten minutes, its effect on our environment is incredibly significant. Even after its use has been fulfilled, our world’s habits of littering the bags across streets, highways, and oceans, push the bags into the world of our mammals and animals. Currently, plastic bags are the sixth highest item of debris washed up on shores and one of the most dramatic impacts on marine life. About 100,000 whales, seals, turtles and other marine animals are killed by plastic bags each year worldwide, according to Planet Ark, an international environmental group. Plastic bags really shouldn’t be argued to be beneficial in anyway if the short use of the product can cause such an impact on every aspect of our world.
While the Bring Your Own Bag movement has only recently been brought to the attention of North American citizens, people residing in countries outside the United States have become used to always bringing a bag if entering a retail, grocery, or convenience store due to an added tax on a bag or the banning of bags being used in a store. Ireland’s “PlasTax”, the 20 cent tax on plastic bags, has decreased plastic use by 90 percent allowing consumers to save their money and recognize the bags are wasteful and of little use for a big impact on the environment. Similar legislation occurred in Australia as well as Mumbai, India going to the extent of banning the bags all together in particular reigns. At one point, Australians were using nearly 7 billion bags a year, and nearly 1.2 billion bags a year were being passed out free in Ireland before government restrictions, according to government estimates. These countries were able to enforce BYOB by informing citizens that the price they pay for the convenience isn’t worth the price of our Earth.
Currently, 500 million to 1 trillion plastic bags are used and discarded to landfills, streets, and surrounding areas every year worldwide. These one-use carriers are produced from factories that exhaust barriers of petroleum wasting money as well as destroying the lands in the Middle East. By the time they arrive in stores utilizing their purpose, plenty of carbon emissions from the transferring of the product are released into our atmosphere. Even before plastic bags wind up as litter alongside our sidewalks or release toxins into the air once a space is found within in a landfill, an individual plastic bag has already aided in the destruction of our planet. Bringing your own bag not only is beneficial for our civilization and wallet, but will begin a phenomenon towards a healthier planet we can survive on.
Though bringing your own bag is the ideal route after consuming the knowledge above, remember to always RECYCLE the paper or plastic bag, or attempt to reuse it before allowing the carriers to aid in the destruction of our planet.
For more information, visit http://www.bringyourbag.com/enviro.php, Click on the About BYOB, and continue to Global Watch. I personally participated in getting the word out in my home town of San Rafael, CA(within Marin County) by standing outside grocery stores and retailers with flyers, information, and reusable bags. It only takes one individual to make the difference; why don't you do something in your community? http://www.bringyourbag.com/requestform.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment