What is that up in the tree? Is it a bird? An opossum? A ghost? Nope, it's a plastic grocery bag. Those darn plastic grocery bags are everywhere! What have I done to solve the problem? Not a lot. Yes, I often reuse them to cart my wet yoga clothes home or pick up dog poop; however, I have to admit, I'm not good at remembering to keep the cloth recycling bags in my car for those trips to the store.
As I was reading "Why Can't We Do This? , I was thinking that charging for plastic bags is probably what we are going to need to do. Ireland imposed a 33 cents per bag tax on plastic grocery bags, and plastic bag usage decreased by 94%! The "ghost bags" dotting the landscape have disappeared. Now, what are the chances a tax like this would pass in the U.S? In my opinion, chances are slim. Do we need more government control? I know many who would say "absolutely not!" However, perhaps another solution would be if the stores would give discounts for bringing your own bags. I read that Whole Foods does this. Can you imagine the impact Wal-Mart would have if they would do this?
What can we as teachers do? For starters, we need to educate students and parents. It doesn't need to be a direct lesson, but maybe there are things we can do to be role models and help create an attitude that being "green" by not using plastic grocery bags is the thing to do. I don't know.
I'm going to make an effort to bring my cloth bags with me to the store the next time I go. What about you?
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