I had to travel out of town this week for work.
It meant I couldn’t write here the whole time. But the good news is that I got to read the New York Times delivered to my hotel room. I brought home a bunch of pages from the NY Times about alternative energy and conservation.
Reuters reports that China is working to ban plastic garbage bags. The Chinese should go back to using cloth bags. Go Back To. Which meant that they had been using cloth bags. But affluence creates waste. In this case, the waste of 37 million barrels of oil to make the plastic bags every year.
Granted, 37 million barrels is only enough oil for the US for 3 days. Yes, it is a little less than 1% of our oil usage. But every percentage counts. I wonder how many plastic bags are used in the US where the grocery stores double bag everything and only put two items in each bag? I shudder to think how many bags have been wasted this way.
And. let’s ask the Mythbusters to test plastic bags. Are two bags stronger than one? I can’t image why they would be. One would not stop the other from failing would it?
But I digress. Allow me to get back to the main topic.
Affluence creates waste. I think that the definition of affluence, of wealth, in many people’s minds, is the ability to waste without pain. We can not afford that kind of affluence. We never could. It is now too painful for everyone else.
One side note: Ireland and South Africa are already limiting plastic bags and Australia has decided to follow China. I could get political and ask, “Where is the US leadership on this?” but I won’t. I’ll wait for the next administration to raise my expectations again.
Yay for China!
And I think you’re right about affluence creating waste. I recently heard a statistic that Americans make up 5% of the world’s population and use more than 30% of what is produced each year. Obviously much of the stuff we’re buying and using (or not using) quickly ends up in the trash heap.
It’s too bad. I wish people thought about what their quest for consumption does to the Earth.