Plastic Bags 1 / Humanity 0

Here is an interesting excerpt from Bill Maher’s Blog:

“From now on Earth Day really must be a year round thing. And in honor of this Earth Day, starting Monday supermarket clerks must stop putting the big bottle of detergent with a handle on it in a plastic bag. I don’t mean to tell you how to do your job, but you see that handle you just lifted the detergent with? I can use that same handle to carry the detergent to my car.

“And stop putting my liquor in a smaller paper sack before you put it in the big paper sack with my other stuff. What, are you afraid my groceries will think less of me if they see I’ve been drinking? Trust me, the broccoli doesn’t care, and the condoms already know.

“Maybe you don’t’ need a bag when you buy a keychain. Americans throw out 100 billion plastic bags a year, and they all take a thousand years to decompose. Your children’s children’s children’s children will never know you, but they’ll know you once bought batteries at the 99 cent store because the bag will still be caught in the tree.”

(Source: Bill Maher’s Blog on the Huffington Post)

I wanted to share that on my blog, because ever since reading that, I can’t help but consider the irony of bagging large items (or any items) that have handles on them already; and I could barely keep my thoughts to myself today when, standing on line in an apothecary, I saw a checkout clerk lift a large bottle of detergent by its handle and place it into not one, but two ultra-thick plastic bags: it was obscene and I was appalled.

I have recently started refusing all plastic bags, and now bring my own bags with me when I shop. And when I don’t have my shopping bag with me, or my backpack, I take the items in my hand and carry them out the store with me: oh how primitive! Once you take on this “cause,” you may find that nearly everywhere you shop, people are trying to push plastic bags on you.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not implying that all plastics are bad…it’s the fact that plastic bags tend to be “single-use” items and are often not even needed. They are pervasive and frequently to do more harm than good and provide more of a burden than a convenience.

Should you take the time to stop and look around, I assure you that you will start to notice discarded plastic bags in trees, bushes, fences, and alleys—it’s distasteful and all too telling of a society that doesn’t care about the World that sustains them.