Let's Move Beyond A Disposable Society

I am tired of living in a disposable society!

Our planet is drowning in throw-away items, from plastic water bottles to old tires and non-repairable appliances. I am old enough to remember a time when if something broke, it got repaired. These days, items appear to be built to have a brief, finite lifespan, and it's usually less expensive to buy a new item than to get one repaired, if someone to do the repairs can even be found.

Our landfills are filling up, and the oceans are awash in plastic. Marine animals such as sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, eat them, and die. My upscale neighborhood is littered on a daily basis with discarded aluminum beer and soft drink cans, plastic water and sports drink bottles, and small plastic wine and whiskey bottles. I am appalled every time I visit a local grocery store (with my reusable bags in hand) to see people leaving the store with shopping carts filled with 15 to 20 plastic bags of groceries. 

Worse still is the attitude held by so many people who treat their animal companions as disposable. People decide to move to an apartment or rental house that doesn't allow pets, or it doesn't allow pit bulls. I'm not talking about people forced to give up their animals when they move into a nursing home, or people who no longer can care for themselves or their animals. I'm talking about people treating their animals as disposable, replaceable commodities. Particularly galling are those who surrender an old dog or cat that has been part of the family for 10 or 15 years. And let's not forget those who dump an animal because they are going on vacation and can't be bothered with boarding the animal while they are away. 

I reuse plastic bags that once held a loaf of bread or some fresh vegetables. They get a second chance to be useful as poop bags when I walk my dogs. On the rare occasion I get a plastic grocery bag (when I don't have enough reusable bags with me), I either recycle the bag on a future trip to the grocery store, or I use it to line a small trash can in one of the bathrooms in my house. 

According to the Earth Policy Institute, more than 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year. The United States is light years behind other countries when it comes to plastic bags. England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and Denmark either ban or charge for bags.  More than 15 African countries have either banned plastic bags or charge a tax on them, the most recent being Kenya. A few US states and cities, including Seattle and San Francisco, either ban or tax plastic bags. California bans plastic bags and charges for paper bags.

It seems that grocery store employees are programmed to put everything into a bag (plastic, of course, because paper bags are no longer an option). I have had baggers start to put a bag of apples into a grocery bag. When I buy a sealed bag of popcorn, I always tell the bagger not to put it into another bag. Even a single, small item would be put into a bag if I didn't object. 

I have several reusable bags that I keep in my car so they're always handy when I shop. Each cost about $1 to buy, but they have paid for themselves many times over because most grocery stores offer a 5 cent credit each time a bag is used. I wash them in the kitchen sink to keep them sanitary. 

The abuse heaped on our planet by our supposedly advanced species saddens me greatly. We have only one known habitable planet. It would behoove us to take better care of it.