“Paper or plastic?”
We’ve heard this question repeated so many times that we don’t even hesitate to answer. We reply and happily go to our cars with our groceries, unaware and indifferent of the effects of our answer on our environment.
But despite this two-option question, many grocery stores now offer a third option: fabric. They just choose not to advertise it.
Environmentalists have realized they must do something to make this third option more accessible to the public and to stop the use of plastic bags in grocery stores. They have made a big effort to persuade grocery stores to offer their own branded bags made of fabric as an alternative to plastic bags.
Plastic is detrimental to many species, ranging from aquatic life to terrestrial animals to humans. It is not biodegradable, and ends up in bodies of water, putting the lives of unsuspecting organisms in harm’s way.
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According to the Surfrider Foundation, “Birds, fish and mammals often mistake plastic for food. Some birds even feed it to their young. With plastic filling their stomachs, animals have a false feeling of being full, and may die of starvation. Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, one of their favorite foods. Even gray whales have been found dead with plastic bags and sheeting in their stomachs. Almost 90 percent of floating marine debris is plastic. Due to its durability, buoyancy, and ability to absorb and concentrate toxins present in the ocean, plastic is especially harmful to marine life.”
The Los Angeles River is not exempt from harrowing stories about the loss of life because of careless plastic bag disposal.
When I visited the Los Angeles River, I saw plastic bags coiled around trees’ trunks and branches, cutting off their air supply and choking them to death. Our tour guide, Alicia Katano, of Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR), referred to these trees as “Christmas trees decorated with trash.”
Katano’s organization strives to eliminate many of the problems regarding the Los Angeles River, one of which is maintenance. FoLAR has river cleanups to try to help the animals live in a cleaner environment.
“There are 23 species of birds that make their nests in the LA River. Bottles and plastic get stuck in their nests – that’s why we do the cleanups,” said Katano.
FoLAR organizes two types of cleanups. The Great LA River CleanUp, for general public volunteers, takes place on two days at many different sites along the LA River and its torrential tributaries. The River School Day, for school children, takes place on a Friday in April, at Fletcher Drive in Atwater Village. The River School CleanUp continues two weeks later on a Saturday in May at 14 different sites, according to FoLAR’s Web site.
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The Los Angles River is 51 miles long and runs through 13 different cities, which means many residents dump their garbage carelessly and much of it ends up in the river – a reservoir for both water and trash.
Various cities have passed plastic bag bans or taxes as an attempt to curb this problem.
San Francisco began the craze for plastic bag bans in March 2007, sparking a conscious effort throughout the world to be more environmentally friendly.
Since then, at least 30 villages in Alaska have followed this example, along with cities in Kenya, Uganda, Leaf Rapids in Canada, and Tanzania’s Zanzibar islands. Ireland has passed a 32 cent tax on plastic bags, and New York City requires large stores and retail chains to recycle plastic bags. The Swiss government has now made fabric bags available to shoppers.
In the United States, Bakersfield, Calif.; Boston, Mass.; New Haven, Conn.; Portland, Ore.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Annapolis, Md. are all considering passing laws to ban plastic bags as well. Austin, Texas has already passed a ban on plastic bags from grocery stores.
In an effort to clean Beijing and prepare for the Olympic Games, China passed a ban on plastic shopping bags and declared war on the "white pollution'' choking its cities, farms and waterways and called for a return to the cloth bags of old, according to the Associated Press.
But the question of “paper, plastic, or fabric?” is up to us as customers.
Grocery store chain owner of Food Town, Jack Shakoor, of Wayne, New Jersey, said, “The customer has to be educated – they have to do their part as well. We sell the canvas bags for only 99 cents, but the amount of customers bringing back these bags is not enough to lower the price of the bags.”
Maybe one day grocers will not even ask “paper or plastic?” – they will simply fill the fabric shopping bags.
LA River CleanUp (La Gran Limpieza) video:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=la%20river&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv#
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