Whole Foods’ move to eliminate plastic bags is a step in the right direction
I grew up bringing used plastic bags to the grocery store. I loathed the experience. My mom would drag me through the aisles, piling our cart high with organic soy-and-allergen-free food, and every time we moved, one of those crinkly, bunched-up pieces of grimy plastic would break free and float down to the floor.
Oh, how I longed to smell the new plasticky smell of unused bags and hear them snap open as the bagger flicked his wrists.
But my mother, always the environmentalist, would crush my hopes every time we got to the cash register, quickly whipping out her wild collection of bags just as the bagger parted his lips to ask, “Paper or plastic, ma’am?”
I couldn’t wait to go shopping on my own, when I would be free to watch as the cashier picked a new bag off of the clip and filled its shiny lifelessness with all of my purchases.
But now that I am living on my own and find myself faced with the immediate issues of pollution, global warming and landfill overuse, I have realized that my mother was right.
According toWhole Foods, it takes roughly 430,000 gallons of crude oil to produce 100 million plastic bags and it takes about 1,000 years for a plastic bag to break down in a landfill.
With those facts in mind, it’s pretty crazy to think that it’s necessary to waste a whole plastic bag just to haul groceries home one time.
So when Whole Foods publicized its “Bring Your Own Bag, Save Your Own Planet Campaign,” I was ecstatic. By April 22, the store plans to eliminate all disposable plastic grocery bags from its checkouts. I applaud the company for using its powerful position in the organic food industry to make a truly beneficial environmental change.
Yet I refrain from sitting back and accepting that Whole Foods will save the environment from here on out. Actually, in this situation where we are dealing with how to save life on Earth as we know it, words from an Ultimate Frisbee teammate come to mind: “Never enough.”
I believe that it is my duty–everyone’s duty–to do all that we can to conserve, reduce, recycle and save so that the environment can have a chance of surviving until the next generation.
I’m okay with baby steps though, so let’s start with plastic. It’s good to recycle the big bags, but what about all of those little ones that shoppers tear off for their broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes and peppers? These too can easily be washed, stored and reused on the next shopping trip.
Ziploc sandwich bags also have a sneaky way of being thrown away after just one use. Instead, stick the baggie in a pocket or bag, and wash it at home. Then hang it up on a cupboard handle or dish rack. There are 100 billion plastic bags thrown away each year-Ziplocs don’t need to be among them.
Another looming plastic offender is the disposable water bottle. Whole Foods says that Americans will buy an estimated 25 billion single-serving plastic water bottles this year and 80 percent of them will end up in a landfill. Stop the pollution at its source and refuse to twist off the cap of that Arrowhead bottle. Nalgenes plastered with sweet stickers look cooler and they hold more water anyways.
I hope that Whole Foods leads the way in a worldwide anti-plastic revolution, and that Safeway’s flimsy, impossible-to-reuse plastic bags are the first to go. But in the meantime, I’ll be heading to the grocery store with my backpack on my shoulder, my shopping list in my hand and plastic bags streaming out behind me.
Contact Campus Press staff writer Emery Cowan at emery.cowan@thecampuspress.com
