Eliminating Single Use Bags

By Phoebe Colvin Oehmig

The world we live in is a consumer driven, throwaway society. This linear lifestyle of consumerism that started post World War II, is unsustainable and has caught up to us. Buying the new and throwing away the used, has been ingrained in American minds so that it seems natural to carry the newest consumer product in a brand new bag, only to throw away the bag minutes later. Plastics are particularly problematic. Plastics, derived from oil, an ever shrinking resource, never decompose back into basic elements, but instead photodegrade, in other words, break down into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic, even on a microscopic level. Plastic bags especially are a formidable pollutant to the environment. Plastic bags end up in the ocean and are often mistaken by marine animals for food. When the plastic survives long enough to begin to disintegrate, it breaks down into microplastics that are deadly to all ecosystems. These micro-plastics end up in the food chain and harm both marine and human life and ultimately unbalance the world’s ecosystems. This is particularly problematic for coastal communities like Brunswick, Maine. Brunswick has many ecosystems, including major rivers, tidal estuaries and the ocean. However, Brunswick’s ecosystems are being poisoned by plastic. Additionally, paper bags are just as bad environmentally. Over its lifetime, one paper bag produces 70% more greenhouse gas emissions and 50 times more water pollutants than a plastic bag, increasing atmospheric acidification and ozone depletion. Paper bags also leave a greater carbon footprint than plastic; it takes the same amount of fuel to ship eight plastic bags as one paper bag. The elimination of single use bags is one way to begin to curtail this problem. Eliminating single-use bag usage will have a positive environmental, health and economic effect on Brunswick and will encourage a cultural shift to a sustainable society. Click here to read Phoebe’s full action plan.