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Those Darn Plastic Bags
January 23, 2008
I came across an article today about Eco friendly aluminum tiles sold by a business started by Melissa Clements in Wisconsin, called Eco-Friendly Flooring.
The tiles are applied the same way as ceramic tiles and are 100% recycled aluminum or brass. There was also an article about recycling bras in 8 Very Curbly Things to Make out of Old Bras.
Those articles on the web caused me to wonder if we are recycling those plastic bags we get at the grocery store and the newspaper and the bags for produce. At our house we use them for the dog park, for lining wastepaper baskets, for packing lunches, etc. and still they pile up. I find them in my dog park coats, in the kitchen drawer and in the car. We must be recycling plastic bags, right?
In fact, we don’t! Some bags do make their way into deck furniture and railroad ties, but nationally less than 1 percent of 100 billion plastic bags tossed each year get recycled. Now there is a movement to ban the bags. San Francisco, for example, has approved a ban on nonbiodegradable plastic bags at supermarkets and large pharmacy checkout counters and want those affected to offer an alternative type of plastic bag – one made from starches. By switching to the compostable bags, the city will be conserving 430,000 gallons of oil used to make traditional bags – the equivalent of keeping 140,000 cars off the street for a day. The compostable bags are more expensive, however. They are made from corn. Corn has increased in price recently because of its use for ethanol.
The “green” movement has caused us to look at our disposable society and figure out ways to use our leftovers in creative new ways. This is just the beginning.
Thoughts? Email them to me at landfair3554@comcast.net
Posted by Mike Landfair on January 23, 2008 | Comments (0)
