Every year an estimated 500 billion to one trillion single-use plastic bags are consumed worldwide. Here in the United States, the average citizen uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags annually.
Currently, 97 percent of these bags end up in either landfills or littering our planets fragile eco-systems. Only 5 percent are ever recycled. A couple of friends and I helped with the Craven Clean Sweep event recently. The largest number of items we picked up was plastic bags.
These 3 reasons alone should encourage all of us to control the overuse of plastic bags:
Producing plastic requires millions of gallons of oil that could be used for transportation and heat.
They take 1,000 years to decompose to particles that continue to pollute the soil and water.
They clog our waterways, hang in the trees and cause death to wildlife.
Proposals to ban single-use plastic bags have been increasingly controversial. I’m not a big proponent of making new laws to force people to do what they should be doing on their own, however I’m not seeing the majority of shoppers leaving the grocery stores with reusable bags. Customers have been shopping without single-use plastic bags in many places, i.e. Costco. At the very least, don’t let the bagger put just a few items in each bag. Paper bags are not the solution either, as the production of these also use energy and create air pollution.
The hope is that businesses will find a way to encourage and promote reusable bags. A simple solution? BYOB. Cloth or vinyl bags can be easily stashed in your trunk, purse, glove compartment and their use could help eliminate hundreds of millions of plastic bags per year. I even have ones that fold up to fit in my purse in case I end up at a store with an unexpected purchase. The first few times you’ll have to make an effort to remember to take them into the store with you, but after that I assure you it will become a habit.
Craven County Clean Sweep sponsors three annual clean up events on the first Saturdays of February, May and October to help keep New Bern streets and waterways free of litter. The upcoming one will be Saturday, Feb. 2, but if that day is not convenient, you can choose another day that fits your schedule.
It’s your choice to help out in any of these ways: by walking along the streets in your own neighborhood; by using your boat to clean up a waterway; by meeting with others at Lawson Creek Park on that Saturday at 9 a.m. to be assigned a spot or by simply picking any other “trashy” area that’s been bothering you. The amount of time you spend on this is totally up to you — it can be 15 minutes or a few hours. Bags will be provided. The bags will also be picked up where you leave them so you do not have to carry them to another spot. For more information, call 633-1477.
Judi Lloyd lives in River Bend and can be contacted at firstname.lastname@example.org