Rethinking Lifestyle

Banning plastic bags in our homes is the easiest and most obvious thing that needs to be changed in our lives immediately. Why? Because we don’t need them, and because over 150 million bags are handed out in Manitoba each year – every one of them ending up either in the dump or spoiling our fields, trees and waterways. That’s because even recycled plastic ends up being garbage after a limited number of uses (unlike say, aluminum which can be recycled indefinitely). So this is pretty basic stuff.

When we decided to ban plastic bags in our home, we were faced with three questions: What will I use to carry my household waste? How can I pick up pet poop? And how will I carry groceries?

The first step, as usual, was to find out how things were done before the problem existed. If we only started using plastic bags in the 1980’s, how did we get by before that? For household waste, the answer is that trash was kept loose in a bin. The problem of messy garbage was solved by keeping wet waste separate and lining the garbage bin with newspaper. Happily, wet household waste is almost all organic and should be disposed of separately in the compost anyway. When all organics and recycling are collected separately, the remaining trash is reduced dramatically and is remarkably clean. In fact, the effect of banning plastic bags in our home has resulted in tidier, more efficient bins around the house. (We also have a bin for larger bits of metal, and a wood stove for tissues, etc.)

There are a few solutions to choose from when picking up pet droppings. Rigid scoops and compostable plastic “grabbers” are commonly available. Just keep in mind that most compostable plastics require specialized composting facilities to break them down properly, otherwise they may be as persistent in the environment as other plastics. Newspaper is a great solution. Use a couple of layers and crumple it up so that it’s flexible enough to grab, or use it to wrap what you’ve picked up with a rigid scooper. To dispose of it, either throw it in an outdoor garbage bin or make a separate compost pile that won’t be used for your food garden. Make sure that pile is covered with some yard waste to keep it smell-neutral!

Surprisingly, the original purpose of thin film plastic bags is the easiest to replace. Once you start using shopping crates and reuseable bags, you quickly realize that plastic bags aren’t actually that great. Crates and baskets are much better for carrying soft food items that get squished in bags. They also drop into your trunk easily without spilling out or rolling around as you drive. Reuseable bags too, hold their shape better. And best of all, they pretty much never break open and dump your groceries on the sidewalk. My greatest challenge was remembering to bring them! I’d been so well trained on plastic bags that it took almost a year to make a habit of keeping reuseable bags in the car (including mesh ones for produce). I can tell you that I walked out of many a store with my hands full before I learned that habit!

Yes, plastic bags were convenient. But now we’ve seen enough pollution and spoiled surroundings to realize that it really wasn’t working. With so many challenging changes that we need to make to our lifestyles, it feels good to start with something relatively easy that everybody knows makes sense. Banning plastic bags in our own home is a personal statement that we’re willing to work a bit for a better future. My challenge to you is to join the growing number of people who have already taken this step, and to be an example to those who haven’t yet.