There’s no such thing in this town (or country or hardly anywhere). It’s a misnomer. At the most, they are fragmentable plastic bags. They do not biodegrade or become compostable material. They are regular plastic bags with chemical additives that, if exposed to sun and air, will break up into larger or smaller fragments after a period of months, sometimes as long as 24 months.
In the interval, therefore, they are still plastic bags lying in rivers and canals, in empty lots, ending up in the sea, being burned along with other garbage, releasing toxins. If and when they do break down, they leave the chemical additives in the environment. Sounds all good to you?
So why are business establishments so in love with them, and insist on smothering us with thousands and thousands of these bags every blessed day? Even when they’re not allowed in City Ordinance 231? Even when the Department of Environment & Natural Resources states that they have never certified their biodegradability?
Your guess is as good as mine. Plain environmental apathy? Crass business motives? Failure of imagination?
The gullible consuming public is lulled into thinking that the “bio” or “oxo” stamp on the bag makes it environmentally-pure and blameless! Joke only! Or else, the consuming public just doesn’t give a d—.
So what if the bags are still made of petroleum laced with chemicals? So what if they lie around everywhere — we’ve got used to the sight! Doesn’t bother us! Hey, live with it already! Or else take yourself off to Ireland or somewhere they’ve done away with them.
And yet, and yet, hope springs eternal, even in this benighted spot, that a glimmer of reason and principle, and change for the better (does it always have to be change for the worse?) is possible….
People! It’s not so hard. Carry around a light reusable cloth bag or two — many of us do, and promise, it’s but the merest inconvenience, all for the common good! Sure, put your fish in a plastic bag, that’s allowed in the City Ordinance.
Business folk, give it a try, all of you — be nice not to disadvantage each other. You’ll feel better for doing the right thing!
And City government: wake up, wake up! Guess what, we can do this together, as the corny love songs say, if we really try….
