Are Plastic Bags Worth the Environmental Impact?

I live in the country and love watching the fields of the farms around me at different times of the year. The winter wheat coming up bright green as it peaks through snow is absolutely beautiful. Cornfields tall with corn stalks, and bean fields with green leaves waving in the wind are visual reminders of the changing of the seasons, and the versatility of the land. We can see deer feeding in the evening, and turkeys, fat from feeding on the grain fields. It's nature as it should be. What doesn't belong in that picture, and shouldn't be part of the visual afforded by the land, are plastic bags, caught on dirt piles and glistening in the sun.

This time of the year, most fields are lying dormant for the winter. I've passed by wintered fields for as long as I can remember since moving to the country, and I've never, until this year, witnessed the sheer number of plastic bags that are pervading the land. It's gotten to a point that I cannot drive any distance out here without seeing said bags in the ditches or hooked onto trees or plant growth as they blew past. I can't believe that the bags are the direct result of someone returning from the store and bringing new bags home. I have to wonder if it's the second and third use of that bag that leads to it blowing in the wind.

As you're probably going to guess, I do use my own bags for shopping whenever possible. If I need to carry something somewhere, I have a supply of cloth, reusable bags that I can access. When I do end up with plastic bags that contain something I've purchased, they go directly to my recycle pile, where they are later disposed of properly. The reason I don't like collecting those plastic bags is because they only have one use at my house. I think it may be a different matter for others who don't choose to use reusable bags.

If you have a pile of those bags, as everyone does, and you need to carry a few items some place, it's an easy option to grab one of those bags and fill it up. If you've brought it home for one use, and you used it a second time to take something somewhere, does it become a little easier to disregard where it goes if it had more than one use? Do folks subconsciously not worry about it if they think they've gotten their "money's" worth out of it? It's really hard for me to come up with a plausible excuse for why they now litter the horizon to the scale they do.

As with everything, this is really an issue with personal responsibility. The bags originated with a purchase, and the purchaser has an obligation to make sure that not only the purchase is taken care of, but its carrier as well. But the reality is if people assumed personal responsibility this wouldn't be an issue. Maybe the time has come to look at alternative types of bags that decompose after exposure to the elements for a specified period of time. They did it with a chip bag not long ago, but people complained because it was too noisy. We really have misplaced priorities these days, but the point is the technology exists. We simply need a push from the mainstream to make it happen.

Until that happens, do what you can to reduce the number of these bags that end up freewheeling through the landscape. Get yourself some reusable bags, use them, and recycle the plastic ones that somehow make it home, anyway. It doesn't require much effort, and Mother Earth thanks you now for your time!