It is time for BYOB! Yes, bring your own shopping bag!  As we continue our path through a busy 2010, it’s outrageous to think about the amount of purchasing we historically carry out here in America and world-wide. Whether it’s numerous visits to the grocery store as we keep our kitchen’s stocked for magnificent meals and tasty goodies or those sometimes dreaded (yet skillful) “6 bags on each arm” walks through the neighborhood shopping mall, it all adds up to a whole lot of unnecessary garbage.  Probably the most blatant examples of this waste is disposable grocery bags.

An estimated 100 billion plastic shopping bags are used each year within the USA, according to the Wall-Street Journal.  Most plastic bags wind up in landfills and the rest time and again end up in rivers, ponds, lakes, streams or in the ocean, where animals can swallow or become entangled in them.  Considering the number of shopping bags that are consumed and wasted each year, the time is now to spread the word in regards to the positive benefits of eco reusable shopping bags.  After all, the majority of us desire to give back to our families, friends and communities as often as possible.

Creating a BYOB strategy in our individual shopping habits is a simple way to do exactly that.  If we could elevate awareness presently, the positive outcome for our environment is immeasurable for 2010 and well into the future.  Several cities have already made gradual but significant advancement in endorsing the usage of eco friendly shopping bags   in recent years.  Encouraging consumers with plastic and paper bag bans, discounts at the register for reusable bag usage and tax motivations are a few to speak of.

Right here in America, the San Jose City Council recently passed among the nation’s strictest bans on plastic and paper shopping bags.   This is a gigantic victory for the Bay Area, that has 1 million plastic bags per year accumulating in and along the San Francisco Bay.  San Jose becomes the newest bay area town to endorse some sort of ban on disposable shopping bags; others include San Francisco and Palo Alto. Tracy Seipel of the San Jose Mercury News reported that it was in fact ONE man who really jump-started the ban, a further remarkable example of the power of one person.  Here’s a an excerpt:

“While visiting his sister-in-law in Taipei, (Kansen) Chu (elected to San Jose city council in 2007) went grocery shopping and was surprised to get charged for plastic grocery bags. The next day, he brought his own cloth bags back to the store.  “I guess the question,” said Chu, “was, ‘Why not San Jose?’ ” He began a conversation with the city’s environmental services staff, which later moved to council committee discussions.

Save the Bay’s 4th yearly report on the most garbage-strewn places in the state further demonstrates the need for BYOB.  The 50-year-old environmental advocacy group focused on 10 particular bay-area sites where approximately 15,000 plastic bags were retrieved in one day last year in their report.   Here’s an passage of an article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Kelly Zito.

According to (Save the Bay’s) research, Californians use about 19 billion plastic bags each year, 3.8 million in the Bay Area. The average use time for the bags – made using about 12 million barrels of oil each year in the United States – is about 12 minutes. In addition to the hundreds of years it can take for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill, the bags also force downtime when fed into traditional recycling equipment. Typically, the bags get wound into conveyor belts or gears and must be cut out by hand.

Ten US metropolitan areas have banned plastic bags thus far, five throughout the past year. Even Mexico City enacted a ban on plastic shopping bags, which went into effect in August.  The city of 20 million now faces the realities of effective enforcement, which is not easy when the Mexico City Chamber of Commerce estimates there’s 35,000 vendors in Mexico City’s downtown vicinity alone.

Bans on plastic bags aren’t really the only valuable means to cut back destructive waste caused by disposable bags.  PlasTaxes, which tax customers at the register for using plastic bags while shopping, were being primarily launched by the Irish.  John Roach of National Geographic reported in 2008 on the worldwide momentum that’s been building from the time when Ireland instilled a PlasTax in 2003.  The Irish confirmed they could decrease plastic bag utilization by 90% or more.   Momentum is growing the world over, particularly in America.  From Washington, DC to Edmonds, WA to North Pole, AK, communities and governments are spurring an international trend to reduce the harmful environmental effects of disposable shopping bags.  In the great state of Hawaii, the governing body is at this time considering a bill to ban single-use plastic bags (SUP), or to ascertain a minimal fee to utilize SUP bags.

Even chief retail stores like Target and CVS are taking action by enacting special discounts at the register for customers who choose to BYOB or just carry-out their stuff without a bag.  For those naysayers, it’s opportune to discount recent momentum in reducing disposable bag waste.  But to some, the wide-spread adoption of eco-friendly green bags is inevitable.  Have a look at the way smoking is becoming taboo in America.  Indoor smoking bans have caught on like wild-fire.  In the same way, who is to say the use of disposable bags won’t turn out to be taboo at some point within the (hopefully near) future?  The use of eco-friendly recycled grocery bags is certainly picking up steam.  Our individual decisions to carry our recycled shopping bags can go a whole lot farther than we imagine.  That’s what BYOB is all about.

Needless to say, plastic and paper bags ought to be recycled and it’s important to remember most large retailers including Albertsons and Wal-Mart will recycle plastic bags for you (just have to bring them your accumulated stash).  That being said, a BYOB shopping strategy can make your life a great deal less difficult because there isn’t a need to accumulate that cupboard filled with plastic bags or figure out what and when to handle it.  Keeping a couple of eco bags in your car or backpack is a good way to ensure you have them when needed. So give back this year by remembering to BYOB!   Whether it be at a convenience store, the shopping mall, or while grocery shopping, we could make a difference for the environment and help raise consciousness one transaction at a time.  In the battle to eliminate disposable shopping bag waste, 2010 is our moment.