Plastic shopping bags a real issue that needs to be dealt with

Sure it’s possible to get used to it and take your reusable bags out of the trunk when you head into a store.

It will be tough, especially since everyone has been spoiled for so many years with the single-use plastic bags that make everything so easy.

Pick up your purchases and the cashier is quick to put them into these bags that unfortunately end up in landfill sites or are cast into the wind by some to end up as decorations on trees or up against fences.

With their thorns, rose trees especially like to hang onto them for months before they break down enough to go into pieces.

It’s not just on land we have to worry about, as all kinds of plastics are ending up in our seas and oceans and causing damage to birds and marine creatures.

Some stores have to be commended for efforts they are taking to try to reduce the number of single-use plastic bags they give out. Walmart now has a charge per bag, and a lot of shoppers don’t bother to buy them if their purchases can be scooped up in their arms or if they remember to bring in their reusable bags.

Coleman’s Grocery Store has come up with a program where it reimburses customers who use reusable bags in lieu of the single-use bags.

However, with the increase in tipping fees being imposed this year at transfer stations it’s likely the writing is on the wall, and eventually plastic shopping bags are going to be done away with.

They are not heavy and are cheap to produce, but it’s logical that eventually the environment just won’t be able to handle them because of where they end up.

With a small school like Stephenville Primary able to collect 39,194 of them in a week, that’s a true indication that the love for these things is certainly out of hand.

There are issues with reusable bags collecting bacteria, but they can be washed regularly to prevent problems with contamination.

Measures need to be taken and if stores put a mandatory program in place and ban plastic bags like they’ve done in some jurisdictions, then people will remember to take their owns bags when they go shopping.

Grade 3 students at Stephenville Primary who were interviewed this week see the benefits of reducing the amount of plastic bags and felt great about how many they collected and prevented from getting into a landfill.

Hopefully our young people are seen as our future, and they will be able to get something done about this hurtful practice of waste that we’ve got ourselves into.