Many Fillmore County residents have contacted me in the past few months with questions concerning plastic bags. During the past year or two, countless articles have been written about plastic grocery bags, most being quite negative.
Today’s article contains information I have found concerning these bags. Plastic bags did not catch on until the ‘70s, but since then, seem to appear everywhere. Nearly one trillion (twelve zeros) are used annually worldwide.
Most plastic does not break down quickly. It may take years to decompose if not exposed to light. This causes something known as plastic pollution. Millions and millions of plastic grocery bags escape captivity and litter highways, parks, forests, road sides, lakes, rivers, oceans, and, of course, the trout streams of Fillmore County. Plastic bags are very harmful to the fish, birds, and other animals of our area. They can be very unsightly, as well.
Elsewhere they clog drainage systems, and choke and strangle all forms of marine life. I have written about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, larger than the State of Texas, that is floating around out there causing all kinds of problems with plants and animals.
Closer to home, plastic bags wrap around wheels, gears, pulleys, and shafts at recycling centers and have been known to confuse the separating machine because it looks like paper to the machine and can contaminate the pulp that makes new paper.
According to a report released by the World Economics Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the ocean contains over one hundred fifty million metric tons of plastics. (A metric ton weighs about 2,204 pounds.) Now, that is a lot of plastic. This report also states that if no action is taken to clean this up, there may be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050.
All of us must make an effort to solve this plastic problem. But, how? One way that is working is becoming members of the Bag Brigade. The numbers of shoppers using reusable cloth and canvas bags seems to be growing.
Another way is to dispose of the plastic bags correctly. Never put plastic bags in with your recycling. They should either be included in your landfill garbage or placed in the container for plastic bags at the recycling center. However, the best option is to bag them up and take them back to a store that accepts them and sends them to a recycler to be processed into new plastic items.
Please keep your plastic bags from escaping into the environment. Once they catch a bit of a breeze they are gone only to find a new home in the branches of a tree, along a stream, or in a roadside ditch.
Thank you for being good stewards of the environment. I also want to thank the people that asked that this article be written. If you have any other questions concerning recycling in Fillmore County that you would like me to discuss, please feel free to contact me, and I will see what I can find.