Ask Eartha Steward

I've been meaning to write and ask about plastic bags. Wal-Mart isn't accepting them anymore. Or am I missing the drop-off location? Where can I recycle plastic bags?

Leigh Girvin

Breckenridge



Plastic bags are one of my favorite topics of "waste management hierarchy," which means you'll have to read to the end to find out how to recycle them - recycling is the last step in waste reduction.

Before we get to the solutions, let's take a look at the problem. It is estimated that one million plastic bags are used every minute on our planet and only .6 percent of them are recycled. To make these plastic bags, 12 barrels of oil are used every minute. The numbers climb considerably when we count other plastic bags, like trash bags, sandwich bags and other plastic packaging.

Not only are plastic bags bad for our oil habit, they are a major problem for oceans and wildlife. More than 100,000 whales, seals, turtles and birds die every year from ingesting or suffocating on plastic bags. This same problem is now being seen in foraging animals, like goats, deer and cows.

Plastic bags blow. They are a major litter problem, earning them such nicknames as "the national flower" in South Africa or "the national flag" in Ireland. Locally, our windy climate can take plastic bags from household garbage, raise them gracefully hundreds of feet in the air and deposit them in trees and waterways.

Plastic bags are more than a nuisance, they are an environmental disaster. Plastics don't biodegrade, but they do photodegrade, which means that the sun breaks them down into smaller and smaller pieces allowing the toxic plastic pieces to seep into our soil and water.

The best solution by far to this widespread problem is to reduce the amount of bags we use in the first place by using reusable bags. Don't roll your eyes. I know. Habits are hard to break. It is tough to remember to bring your own bags to the store.

I started my bring-your-own-bag quest after I almost suffocated in a wave of plastic bags that erupted from the cupboard I used to store the hundreds of plastic bags I promised to reuse or recycle one day. I began by using these canvas bags that I earned by donating to one environmental group or another. I'd forget them occasionally, but it started becoming part of my grocery store routine. I'd write a list and gather my canvas bags.

But the bags got dirty and when I washed them they shrunk to some smaller, odd shape. I was embarrassed to carry them. They were ugly. And they didn't stand up straight as I raced to fill them before the grocery store clerk started shoving my goods into an endless supply of plastic bags.

I almost gave up on my BYOB quest. But I found a few really cool, sturdy, flat bottomed bags that soon became a grocery store fashion accessory that I couldn't live without. That was the secret. Investing in good quality, user-friendly and most importantly, attractive reusable bags. Check out www.reusablebags.com for some amazing options.

Of course, you'll still find yourself with plastic bags. The next best option is to reuse them. Keep them for camping trip garbage bags, dog-doo bags or liners in small trash cans.

When you have too many to reuse, the next best option is to bring them back to the producer. Wal-Mart (their bin has moved back to the customer service desk) and Safeway (their bin is located near the front by customer service) both take back plastic bags for recycling in Summit County. Ask your other grocers and retailers to follow suit.

Why take them back to the producer instead of your local recycling drop-off center? First, to change this one-way system of cradle-to-grave materials use (and get us closer to the dream of a zero-waste community) we need to send signals back to the producers of materials that they share in the responsibility for end-of-life product management.

Next, while the Summit County Recycling program has plans in the works to collect plastic bags for recycling in the near future, it is a costly and difficult endeavor. Plastic bags must be kept dry and out of the sun to ultimately be recycled - a challenge anywhere, but particularly at 9,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains.

So reduce first, then recycle. Take that step, invest in some groovy bags and BYOB to the grocery store. No eco mama (or papa) should be without them.



Eartha Steward is written by Carly Wier, Holly Loff, and Beth Orstad, consultants on all things eco and chic at the High Country Conservation Center, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to waste reduction and resource conservation in our mountain community. Eartha believes that you can walk gently on our planet, even if you're wearing stylie shoes.

Submit questions to Eartha to recycle@colorado.net with Ask Eartha as the subject or to High Country Conservation Center, PO Box 4506, Frisco, CO 80443.