Plastic bags still rule in the U.S.
Surprise, surprise!
Australia and China are phasing them out, Germany
and Ireland tax them, but in the United States, the plastic shopping bag
is still king…
Americans use 100 billion plastic shopping bags a year, according to Washington-based think tank Worldwatch Institute, or more than 330 a year for every person in the country. Most of them are thrown away.
A handful of U.S. cities and states have made moves to cut that number and Whole Foods Market, a supermarket pitched at the organic and natural food shopper, said it would phase out plastic bags out by Earth Day on April 22. But critics say the United States is years behind countries in Europe, Asia and Africa…
Made from crude oil, natural gas and other petrochemical derivatives, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil are used to make the bags the U.S. consumes each year…
“The mentality in America is plastic bags come from plastic bag land,” said Mastny, of the Worldwatch Institute. “We don’t think about where they come from and where they are going.”
The critical question has nothing to do with whether or not our government, our leaders can advance this solution. Virtually every one of the nations making this decision in the past year did so in a reasonably short timeframe. They examined the cost in oil consumed, landfills choking on immortal plastic, and decided leadership and action was needed. Meanwhile, here in the States -
The plastic bag lobby is as big as the Oil Patch Boys lobby. Oh, they are…
Americans use 100 billion plastic shopping bags a year, according to Washington-based think tank Worldwatch Institute, or more than 330 a year for every person in the country. Most of them are thrown away.
A handful of U.S. cities and states have made moves to cut that number and Whole Foods Market, a supermarket pitched at the organic and natural food shopper, said it would phase out plastic bags out by Earth Day on April 22. But critics say the United States is years behind countries in Europe, Asia and Africa…
Made from crude oil, natural gas and other petrochemical derivatives, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil are used to make the bags the U.S. consumes each year…
“The mentality in America is plastic bags come from plastic bag land,” said Mastny, of the Worldwatch Institute. “We don’t think about where they come from and where they are going.”
The critical question has nothing to do with whether or not our government, our leaders can advance this solution. Virtually every one of the nations making this decision in the past year did so in a reasonably short timeframe. They examined the cost in oil consumed, landfills choking on immortal plastic, and decided leadership and action was needed. Meanwhile, here in the States -
The plastic bag lobby is as big as the Oil Patch Boys lobby. Oh, they are…
Posted: Fri - January 25, 2008 at 01:49 PM