Comments on: Who’s Behind the ‘Save the Plastic Bag’ Campaign?

By: Back to Natives

Back to Natives — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:40:41 +0000

This is one of the fairest and most informative posts on plastic bags that we have read. We must all work together for the betterment of the Earth! REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, RESTORE. There is so much misinformation on both sides, but i agree, there is no need to continue using something that i have witnessed again and again flying from the unclosed top of garbage trucks driving past Upper Newport Bay in Orange County. For those that do not believe that plastic bags make up a significant portion of litter in our natural areas, then volunteer. Volunteer on a project that has nothing to do with collecting or counting plastic bags, and you will see them everywhere. I volunteer with the Clapper Rail Study Project in UNB, the highest proportion of litter in the Bay is styrofoam by far, but right behind that is plastic bags. At a restoration event yesterday in Mason Regional Park in Irvine, there were plastic bags caught in the chain link fencing along Culver, and at least ten under the Eucalyptus trees along the road. They are everywhere. Last year during our Coastal Cleanup day at Mason, the majority of the trash was plastic bags and styrofoam, usually combined, i.e. styrofoam to-go containers in a plastic bag.

By: brian chacon

brian chacon — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:11:59 +0000

i have save more that u could think last week i have save over
200 hundred bag can you think how much for are iverment that is
i might go up to new york to see how is it bad or god i am not sure
it might be bad it might be good you never now how is it last week
it went to nevada and it was nice

By: Zardoz

Zardoz — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:53:43 +0000

I can’t find any information… just disinformation. I’ve read everything at algalita, and about a hundred web searches and I’ve yet to find any sourced facts. Depending on the website here are the numbers of animals harmed by bags per year are:

1000’s of marine life
100 Thousand marine mammals
100 Million marine animals
1 Billion marine mammals and birds
100 Trillion marine mammals and birds

I’m guessing someone threw out a number and it was continuously embelished. There doesn’t semm to be any original source. i don’t think there are 100 trillion marine birds and mammals in existence that could even die every year.

Articles have speculated that plastic soup is killing all of the whales and plankton, etc, but whale populations are booming and so are plankton populations. Algalita has published lots about the toxins abosrbed into the plastic, but none suggesting that these toxins are transmitted into the animals, just speculating that they could be. In fact, it seemed from Algalita’s website that the big killer was discarded fishing gear, and that the largest source of plastics came from bad shipping containers used to transport the pellets made into plastic.

Plastic is in everything we use from the console of our Prius to our clothes to our toothbrush. Plastic is not going away, and disposable plastic may not even be the primary problem. For all the research I’ve seen, plastic may be the very best thing for the environment because of its inertness. Things made of wood or cloth may be far more toxic breaking down if used on a large scale.

I’m not advocating littering into the oceans, but isn’t it true that littering, and bad shipping practices are the real culprits of plastic soup.

At some level we need real information, not just dubious claims that 10% of all plastic bags wind up in the ocean. Otherwise we will all carry around our cloth shopping bags smug and satisfied that we’ve done our part without helping a single creature.

By: cathy

cathy — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:09:19 +0000

As much as I can understand that ‘they’ would be losing business, the plastic bag issue has been going on for years. The plastic bag people should have been preparing for this, and looking at ways to re-engineer their companies and products. I knew this 2 years ago, before I even started reading ‘Green Blogs’ how could they not know?

And as for the people who ‘have ‘ to line their trash cans and pick up dog matter, there is plenty of other packaging that will work. I use cereal boxes, and the wrapping it comes for trash liners (kitchen). There is plenty of plastic bags around, you just have to re-think on where to get it.

By: Going Green

Going Green — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:21:26 +0000

That is sad that they are launching such a campaign to continue polluting the earth… they know they are polluting the earth… but they simply want to save their bottom line. I don’t know why they don’t start to adapt in order to begin to meet the demand for reusable bags? Why don’t they increase recycling centers and awareness? There’s tons of things they could poor money into the both help the environment and their product, but they choose to take a ridiculous route instead.