Why Plastic Bags are Good for the Environment
by I used to work for a retail company and I would ask the customer if they wanted a plastic bag to package their materials or not. I was told later by a coworker that this slows down the sales process and shouldn’t ask. He said, “Just should put the item in the bag and if they don’t want the bag the customer will tell you”.
So I started doing this, and I was caught by surprise by how many people did not want a plastic bag. Mostly women but a few men would say things like, “I don’t need a plastic bag. I am trying to save the environment,” or, “Save the bag, save the dump,” or, “I brought my own,” and out would pop a cloth shopping bag.
It started to make me mad because I would put the item in the bag and as I was separating the bag from the pile of bags they would say this and I would have to take the item out of the bag. Then I had the problem of how was I supposed to put the bag back on the pile of bags. It was physically impossible because they stick together and once removed they don’t want to go back on. Sometimes the customer would take out the item from the bag and throw the plastic bag onto the table saying they didn’t need it.
I started to wonder, “Do people really believe that not using a few plastic bags is good for the environment?” You know what the problem is? We have been told for so long the negatives of plastic that we think it is a bad creation and hence its derivative, plastic bags, are no good either. Things like it won’t biodegrade for thousands of years and finally, “It takes oil to make and we will run out of oil and have a crisis on our hands.
I want to dispel these myths. It does take thousands of years for plastic bags to bio-degrade but and here is the thing people forget, It only takes a dump 15 or 20 years to fill up with regular degradable waste. All we are doing by not sending a plastic bag to a dump is prolonging the life of a garbage dump. If you think about it, a plastic bag is very thin and flat when unloaded. How much room are we possibly saving?
And as most of you know, and who do not have stock in that private garbage company, it is a private waste management authority that makes a profit getting rid of the waste. So all we are doing is benefiting a private company by helping them have a little more space to dump for a couple of extra years while they find a new space for a dump to start the dumping process again. Let them find a new dump now and get it ready. Why help them out? They charge an arm and a leg anyway, which gets put on the tax payers back.
I mean face it. The only people who this helps are the garbage company. Also there is still oil to be found. Unfortunately, the arctic is slowly losing its ice sheets opening up new territory to explore oil. And if they are allowed to produce oil in the arctic then it is only a matter of time before they find ways of producing oil in Antarctica. Antarctica is a continent and I am sure millions of dinosaurs roamed its land when it was still in a good climate. And if not there must have been other creatures that died that produced oil so we still have places to go to find oil. Also plastic bags can be made from things other than oil, like coal, which we have a 300 year supply of. So, use plastic bags. You are not destroying the environment you are helping it. Why?
One last thing to remember, when a garbage dump closes it is sealed so no water can get in, the material in it can’t leak out and it is covered with soil. A few years go by and a government official realizes he has a gold mind on his hands because this dump can be turned into parkland with views of the country side that people would love to take pictures of or see and starts the process of park appropriation.
Once again the private garbage company makes a profit by selling the land to the government or being paid fair market value by the dump being taken away by eminent domain. However it is acquired, in fact the garbage company could donate the land for some kinds of tax write off, don’t be afraid of the plastic bag. It has been and always shall be our friend.
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Post Commentkyle
On November 3, 2009 at 12:46 pm
this argument doesnt make sense to me. are you saying that because we dont use a plastic bag we are giving money to dump sites? if this is the case then i dont understand the problem just because they make more money doesnt mean that consumers will spend more, and yes there will always be dumps but why would we not want to decrease the amount of non biodegradable materials in trash .also you cant dispell those \”myths\” because they are facts learn the difference. plastic bags polute water supplies and kill wildlife decreasing biodiversity which we are very much dependent on. This argument looks like nothing more then a justification to be lazy to me.
Nat
On December 16, 2009 at 11:09 am
I agree with kyle, you are not making sense in this artical. If you feel that the problem is the fact that you cant be bothered to take an item back out of a bag when a customer dosnt want one then just do yourself a favour and ask is they want one before hand. I also used to work in retail and it is true that some customers can be rude when declining your offer of a bag but thats down to their rudeness not the bag itself. As for saying: whats the point of saving the landfill an extra two years , and instead just get a new one, is again another rediculous point… why would you want them to cover out land with rubbish, maybe in a place near were you live, when you can fit extra into one that already exists. also at the end of the day if you work you will get taxed Irrelevant of how many landfill sites there are.. you obviously have no idea.
Mikaela
On January 28, 2010 at 10:27 pm
I must say i disagree with your view on plastics. These “myths” are facts. Did you do your research before you wrote this essay? Most plastics are put into the ocean(more than on land & land fills cause horrible pollution as well). Because of this there is a place called The Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean. It’s off the coast of California all the way to China (10 million squared miles). This is mainly plastics hence your plastic bags. If you search what The Garbage Patch is you will see the horrible effects of it. It kills numbers of marine life and sea birds. There is 6x more plastic pieces and plastic bags in the ocean than plankton, one of the most plentiful entity of the ocean.So when people would rather save the enviroment than use a plastic bag there is a solid reason for it. Every piece of plastic does count, things add up. Plastic bags are our friends ? Really because they are helping destroy our Planet. All things are linked, we need the ocean to survive as well as the land, and dumping plastics into them has no positive effect.
-Mick
Ed
On February 4, 2010 at 7:06 am
you seem want revenge on plastic bags because they made your job hard.
Jim
On September 25, 2010 at 7:27 am
I proudly take plastic bags. Plastic bag workers need jobs too.
This anti-plastic bag stuff is just more Do-gooder nonsense.
Do-gooders gave us no Nuclear plants so we could be more dependent on Oil, Less insecticide so we can have Bedbugs again and Bears roaming in New Jersey suburbs to name a few. All this environmental do-gooder stuff leads to is more trouble for everyone.
Michael
On February 8, 2012 at 2:14 pm
I think your expository writing is great!