Plastic bags have been a problem Sedona Recycles has been dealing with since we opened our doors in 1996. We receive them despite our best efforts to educate the public that we don’t accept them. Through our educational efforts we get the word out that the local grocery stores take plastic bags and have very sustainable programs but more importantly we encourage everyone not to use them in the first place. Plastic bags cause more problems for us in our sorting process than any other material. People using our drop off sites bring their plastic bottles and cans in plastic bags and put the entire thing into the bin. This is easy for them but it presents a myriad of problems for us. We have to tear open every one of these bags and empty the contents and then dispose of the plastic bag and by dispose of them I mean put them in the trash because there is no outlet for dirty bags. In most cases the bags we receive as part of our mix contain food residue or liquid deeming them unacceptable through the local grocery store collection programs. The disposal of all these bags has more than doubled our monthly trash bill but most upsetting to us is that we now have to throw out something that could have been recycled if handled properly to begin with. The plastic bag is a modern convenience that has changed the way people shop and because it is free the hidden cost of the damage it causes is out of sight of the person who throws it in the bin. Believe me we know the cost on our level and the greater cost to our environment as a whole.
The following is a little background on how we as a society found ourselves swimming in a sea of plastic bags. Beginning in 1961 the single use products industry began the promotion of the throw-away lifestyle and littering became common place even labeling those doing the throwing as Litter Bugs. In 1977 the plastic grocery bag was introduced in the supermarket industry as an alternative to the paper bag. This followed on the heels of the introduction of plastic produce bags which overtook the paper bag in the produce aisle. In 1982 trade groups began their famous battle of plastic bag versus paper bag. During this time the plastic bag market share soared from 4% of all grocery bags used to 50%. By 1996 80% of all grocery bags were plastic. Due to the public’s concern about plastic bags, reusable bags were created in 2005 by Andy Keller with the production of the ChicoBag famously named after the landfill in Chico, California.
There have been many attempts by cities and States to place a tax on plastic bags and they have been uniformly contested and in most cases defeated. The Plastics industry has strong lobbyists and deep pockets. The dissemination of misinformation about reusable bags and paper bags is purely a marketing strategy put forth by plastic bag manufacturers. This product makes them billions of dollars a year and they don’t want that flow of cash to stop despite the proven environmental devastation caused by the plastic bag and other plastic products. Our Oceans are dying and according to Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society plastic presents a much more serious problem than oil spills to the Oceans of the world. Due to the makeup of plastic bags they photo degrade into ever smaller pieces never truly going away. They are ingested by marine life and you would be unlikely to eat a piece of fish today that does not have plastic included. There is a loop here and it is not a pretty one. You get the plastic bag there is little to no infrastructure for the recycling of the plastic bag even if you were to make the effort. The bag becomes a landfill or litter problem and eventually finds its way into the food chain and back to you as an unhealthy additive to the fish that everyone is encouraging you to eat. In the end we have to understand what free means. Yes the bag is free but the cost of that bag to the environment and the health and well being of us all is a price that is too great to pay. Please do the following when it comes to plastic bags, refuse them and always carry reusable bags with you. Remember this: 1 year, 1 shopper, 500 plastic bags, multiply that by the number of people shopping and you get the picture. Please remember when you are recycling either at the Sedona Recycles facility or at any of our 20 drop off sites to dump the contents from your plastic bags and then recycle them at your local grocery stores which offers this recycling in their lobbies. Help us limit and eventually eliminate the use of plastic bags and replace them with reusable bags and we will thank you and the Earth and its waterways will thank you as well.