Plastic peril

I'd always known that plastic bags were a problem, but this video was a real eye-opener.

One of the things that really struck me was the issue they were having in Africa with the mosquito breeding grounds, caused by the plastic bag waste.  The diseases carried by these mosquitoes kill hundreds of thousands of people annually, so eliminating this source could minimize the number of deaths.

A particular way one person was able to make a difference, was the lady in England who filmed a documentary for the BBC about plastic bags in the ocean near Hawaii. She was able to by-pass all the political red-tape by going straight to the shop-keepers. It is an impressive feat, to change the way a whole town functions by taking the argument directly to the people.  I have to admire the clever simplicity of it. 

I believe the first step is to stop manufacturing plastic bags altogether.  Granted, there's no actual way to shut down businesses that make them, currently.  And it's difficult to tell someone who's turning a profit that they "ought to stop".   It seems that we've always gone a rather backwards way about conservation. The preemptive option is too late.  We can't make a change from the "top-down" as it were, but in the same way that that woman went about changing her town in England, we as individuals can make a difference by not using plastic bags.  If there's no longer a demand for them, they won't be made.  It absolutely has to start from the ground and go up.  Not even locally, but individually.

As for the recyclability of  these lightweight death-traps, I do not believe the bag manufacturer for one second.  Plastic bags are not "misunderstood".  He is running a business.  Of course he's going to defend his profits by saying whatever he has to.  His argument was shamefully transparent and sadly typical of a corporate big-wig.

A particular comment was made by a woman in the video that resonated with me, personally.  She said that by using the plastic bag provided by the store, she felt she was less suspicious.  I too have been under scrutiny in the past for carrying my own bags.  I've always carried a bag or a backpack when shopping, because I prefer not to use something once and then discard it, whatever it is.  And from the time I began shopping for myself as a teenager and even still now, to this day, (I'm 36) I am given strange looks when I fill my bag at the grocery store.  Once, I even was stopped as I was exiting a store so that my bag could be searched.  Obviously I had a receipt for everything, but it was mortifying to be accused like that.   I walk everywhere or take the bus, so having a bag with me is not only convenient, but necessary, so I wish it was more socially acceptable to be "green".