Posts Tagged ‘plastic bags’

I put my wet garbage into plastic bags and send to the landfill. Composting is not an option.
I have assumed that sending it through the disposal and ultimately into the river would be worse for the environment. Am I right?

I do little things like re-use plastic bags, we are going to be planting food like carrot etc, I try not to use a lot of water or electricity. Does anyone know any ways that are fun and cool to go green? Prefurably not anything I’d have to buy…. Don’t answer with that stupid spam stuff!

With all the craze of celebrities using shopping totes and retail clothing stores that supply them, are shopping totes better for the environment? I’ve looked at these "This is not a plastic bag" totes and I wonder "Aren’t these too made of non-environment friendly materials? If say, one of these shopping totes lasts me a year, how much damage does making this bag do to the environment, versus the damage a year’s worth of plastic bags from the grocery store do to the environment?

I use public transport, I cycle, I don’t waste water, I don’t waste electricity, I reuse paper bags instead of using plastic bags. I conserve and try to recycle bottles and cartons. I save paper. I love trees.
What do you do?

Why not just throw our litter on the floor? It would eventually return to nature: decompose more quickly than Landfill. How is piling plastic bags full of rubbish, on top of thousands of other plastic bags full of rubbish in landfill sites better for the Environment?
(will take a few mins to download)
Explanations about how we process rubbish all the problems associated with it
and what may be done in future and all problems. There is no evidence to suggest
that landfill is not a problem. There is more evidence to suggest there are more
problems than we knew about.

Climate Change and Waste

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/dirty_truths.pdf

Climate Change and Stopping OVER Consumption
•Waste prevention -the best environmental option, avoiding resource use
•Reuse -reduces need for resources and manufacturing
•Recycling -reduces need for extraction and processing of new resources
•Composting -returns nutrients and structure to soils; displaces other fertilizers; sequesters carbon; and, in the case of anaerobic digestion, produces methane which can be used as a 100% renewable energy source.
•Then we must phase out the rest -the residual waste, which is currently landfilled or incinerated
–Phasing out residual waste is the right long term direction, both for resource efficiency and climate change.

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/event_presentations/waste_and_climate_change.pdf

Biodegradeable Wastes Returning to the soil

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/way_forward_on_biowaste.pdf

Campaign Guide. This is old research but demonstrates current arguments. Simply states why landfill sites are not well managed.

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/landfill_campaign_guide.pdf

Waste Stream and New Technologies and their problems (follow links within)

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/new_waste_technologies.pdf

anaerobic digestion

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/anaerobic_digestion.pdf

Why putting waste on the ground is a great idea (like in French Vineyards) where it is not even sorted before placing on ground.

Abstract gives sources Utilization of Urban Wastes in Crop Production

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0006-3568%2819710615%2921%3A12%3C561%3AUOUWIC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage

Stabilization of organic matter during composting.

http://www.woodsend.org/pdf-files/s.houout_CSU_vol13No1.pdf

Environmental and Health Impact of Solid Waste Management Activities
By Ronald E. Hester, Roy M. Harrison

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=tP6BEJBUD_8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=France+Vineyard+refuse+mulch&ots=dJheQ62BXG&sig=HrBjTWbiQzmGCKWhiu0tcTCf_KM#PPA211,M1

Seastedt T R 1984 The role of microarthropods in decomposition and mineralization process. Annu. Rev. Entomol. 29, 25–46.

St John T V 1980 Influence of litter bags on growth of fungal vegetative structures. Oecologia 46, 130–132.

Stevenson F J 1986 Cycles of soil carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, micronutrients. John Wiley and Sons, New York, USA.

TSBF 1993 Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility: A Handbook of Methods. Second ed. Eds. J M Anderson and J S I Ingram. CAB, Wallingford, UK.
SO In the worst case scenario even if you do not compost just place the waste on the land, after all the organic material decomposes you are left with the plastics tins, glass, etc which does not biodegrade. This is already ‘presorted’ so it would just be a case of collecting up these materials for recycling.

Not looking like such as stupid idea is it now?

We have lots of milk and juice containers and have to store them until we drive to the recyling center. We use plastic bags or bins but they take up a lot of room. Any ideas on how to store them until we go to the recycling center?
Plastic does not crush well – tends to retain it shape! My husband drinks tow gallons each week and that is way too many to make into recycled projects such as bird feeders, scoops, ice jugs, etc. etc. etc

I bag groceries as a job and everyday, I see how wasteful people can be when they ask us to double bag plastic, or to bag their groceries in paper and hang them in plastic. Many of them don’t realize how harmful to the environment this can be. Especially using plastic bags. Around here, you cant recycle palstic bags because they jam the recycling machines and we get shipments where entire crates of plastic bags have holes in them and we have to throw them away. I try to encourage customers to use paper as it is re-usuable, can hold more, easier on the environment, etc etc. Next week it is earth week and the store is giving out canvas bags that customers can bring back everytime they shop. Do you ever wonder how your choice of bags can make a difference? What do you think about this? Are there any other suggestions you have on how to help the environment when it comes to grocery bags?
im not saying that double bagging is bad… just the customers that request EVERY bag to be doubled even if it isnt heavy. or asking for multiple bags when there isnt the need for them. And plastic bags are handy to use for waste bins and to be reused but sadly, not many people here do reuse them. they just put them in the trash