Pulling the Plastic Bags Over Our Eyes

Let me be perfectly clear about this: diverting as many plastic bags as possible from our landfills is the right thing to do for the planet.

And as you certainly know by now, Atlantic Superstore grocery stores (owned by Loblaw Companies Ltd. of Ontario) have recently begun charging customers 5 cents (plus tax) for every plastic shopping bag they take from the store. The charge is part of a corporate initiative on the part of Loblaw to supposedly divert 1 billion shopping bags from landfills by the end of 2009.

But while I agree with the “stated” goal, I’m skeptical of the essential premise that shoppers taking home fewer plastic grocery bags will equal fewer plastic bags in the landfills. And I’m even more skeptical that charging for grocery bags has anything to do with environmental protection, given that the company has conveniently eliminated an operating cost and simultaneously created a brand-new income source in one fell swoop.

A Loblaw press release says that “partial proceeds” from the charge on plastic bags will go to conservation organization WWF-Canada. It goes on to say, “The remainder of the proceeds from the charge on plastic bags will be used to cover the cost of the Loblaw plastic shopping bag reduction program and invested back in the business in price and customer service.”

That glaring insult aside, the initiative appears to assume that because a grocery bag goes out the door of a retailer, it necessarily ends up in one of our landfills because customers are simply throwing them in the garbage. Plastic grocery bags are recyclable, aren’t they? I asked Inge van den Berg, VP of Public Affairs and Investor Relations for the Loblaw Company about this assumption. “There are unfortunately many that end up in landfills, with people not having the opportunity to recycle them. Therefore it is the goal to reduce the amount of plastic bags within circulation,” she told me, repeatedly. But does she have any figures which suggest what proportion of bags end up in landfills, or why? “I don't have any of that research handy,” she said.

So I called Jim Bauld, Manager of Solid Waste Resources for HRM and asked him what proportion of grocery bags is ending up in the landfill. “It's really tough to determine,” he admitted. “I know that annually through our curbside recycling program, newspapers, magazines, telephone books, and envelopes can all go in any plastic grocery bag, and we recycle about 400 tonnes a year of plastic bags through that program.” Bauld explained that all other plastic bags should be put into one bag, which should be tied and placed in your blue bag. Loose bags can gum up the sorting machinery, and dirty bags can’t be recovered.

So the big question in my mind is, “Why are plastic grocery bags ending up in landfills at all?” Since the Loblaw Company is unable to explain this, my theory is that a large proportion are simply bags that have been used for kitchen garbage – in which case they’ll only be replaced by other plastic bags manufactured specifically for garbage – with a potentially larger environmental impact.

I would suggest that the best way to keep plastic bags stay out of the landfills is to ensure that they get recycled, and I would also suggest that if the Loblaw company truly cared about the environment, they would have put more effort into communicating that fact to their customers in the first place. We may end up with fewer grocery bags with one of their logos on it in the landfill, but I doubt we’ll end up with fewer plastic bags overall.

A World without Bags

It’s not that I’m being willfully ignorant, it’s just that I have a memory about as reliable as our mayor is proactive. So, even though I recently bought a couple of those unsightly re-usable grocery bags, I almost never remember to bring them into the grocery store with me when I get out of the car. In fact, most of the time I forget to even put them IN the car.

And it’s not that I don’t care about the environment and the future of the planet and all that, it’s just that … well, I find plastic grocery bags kind of …convenient. For carrying groceries. And for other stuff, too.

So the fact that one of the local grocery stores has gone “bagless” causes me some concern. I don’t mean a lot of concern. It’s not keeping me up at night, or anything.

I just don’t think I could live a completely plastic-bagless existence.

First of all, I hate being seen in public carrying those ugly re-usable bags around. Especially those big green flowered ones. Sure, you can carry a lot of stuff in them and (supposedly) throw them in the washer when they get dirty. Like I need more laundry to do. But since you actually own them and you have to take them with you into the store, they’re sort of a fashion accessory, and in that sense, they’re downright embarrassing.

Then there’s my pooch and her somewhat inconvenient need to poop twice a day. I know, there’s already been a ton of discussion on this subject. But listen, I’ve tried those biodegradable bags. And without getting into all the messy details, they’re kind of narrow, and they don’t work well for …larger dogs. As for a certain environmental group's advice to use paper bags (!!) …well, you guys first.

Also, I have an extremely arrogant and demanding kitty-cat whose litter needs to be scrupulously scooped daily into something that can be tied and tossed quickly, before one faints from inhaling the toxic fumes. I should also point out that if this litter is not cleaned fastidiously and often, this cat will pee directly out the door of the litter box, as a message to me, her horrible owner. So a reliable supply of grocery bags for this purpose is more or less essential.

Sometimes I re-use my grocery bags to haul my recently-read magazines over to the hospital so they can be delivered to the various waiting rooms – which, I might add, are usually in desperate need of fresh reading material. Do I get any points for re-using my plastic bags for good rather than evil?

And at any given time, there are various shopping bags in service around my house as storage containers for wrapping paper, craft supplies, summer clothes, nuts and bolts, clothespins, old comic books, photographs… you name it. Those bags are pretty darned versatile. I doubt that it would be better for the planet if I went out and bought a bunch of hard plastic containers.

Maybe inventive re-use runs in my family. My Uncle Jack refers to a plastic grocery bag as his “briefcase” and cheerfully totes his important documents around in one (generally known as a “Sobeys bag,” even if it’s from another store) whenever he has a meeting with some official or other.

I have also been known to make use of this system from time to time – until recently, when I managed to find a handy alternative – a $1 “courier bag” from the dollar store. So you see, you can’t say I’m not trying to be proactive.

Okay, I’m just being flippant here ...but I get a distinct sense that I’m probably not supposed to joke about this stuff. So don’t get your #2 HDPE and your #4 LDPE plastic bags all in a knot, okay? I am cutting back on my use of these bags. I’m just saying that if the whole city were to go plastic-less, I’d be in a bit of a…uh, sticky situation.

Anyway, must “environmentalism” and “sanctimony” always go hand in hand? All that righteous indignation out there is probably contributing to global warming, you know.

(This item was previously published in my weekly column, "Don't Get Me Started" in the HRM West Community Herald.)