In my ever growing list of human induced threats to sea animals, plastic bags rank number two after commercial fisheries. Fishing harms animals directly by ensnaring them, and indirectly by competing for their food. Imagine grocery shopping behind a bulldozer. Ship strikes are number three on my list, killing whales and sea turtles as they rest on the surface.
Plastic may be the greatest threat, however, because it is pervasive. Plastic bags and lighters fill the guts of seabirds and turtles. Its ugly. So, how do you stop plastic? Ed Norton will tell you, below.
Join the Plastic Fight Club. BYOB – bring your own bag. Canvas bags are cheap, available at grocery stores. They look good, and hold more. People wink at you- they see what you’re doing. Seriously, try it this weekend. If you’re on Facebook, join the cause to “Drop the Bag“. You can recruit people, build an army. It’s fun.
The last is a special treat courtesy Aaron Golas in the comment section. Hilarious!
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Tim Minchin shares the sentiment.
Tim Minchin’s piece is absolutely brilliant! Love it. My wife and I hav made bags for people before, maybe ought to do up some new Deep Sea and invert centric ones and put the profits all towards a good cause.
I love the “Take your canvas bags to the Super Market” and how in Australia they Banned plastic bags!!
I want to be a Member of the BYOB!
I have 7 kids. I don’t need a canvas bag. I need my own shopping cart… or three. ;)
Your own “bamboo” shopping cart, my friend…
Make those 7 kids carry the groceries?
I always carry my backpack with me, so bags are never the problem. If I happen to buy more than I can carry, I’ve been carrying a bigger, better quality plastic bag in my jacket for months. However, it saddens me when I see people take, often more than one bag, to carry a yogurt and some bread, or even a plastic bottle of water!
I once had a CVS employee, no lie, try to double-bag a four-pack of toilet paper. Um, no thanks, I’ll just carry it under my arm.
And then there was the one who tried to triple-bag a box of kitty litter. Granted, that one’s actually heavy… but it has a built-in handle!!!
The best thing about the Tim Minchin video is, it works. Every time I go to the market now, it pops into my head, and I remember to bring my canvas bags, hehe.
Absolutely true. For months I have ended up at the checkout counter, cursing because only then do I remember the canvas bags are in the car. This weekend, I had that song in my head and remembered. My sweetheart was teasing me about it, so I threw in a few of the dance moves in the parking lot (I’m particularly fond of the vogue-esque hand-thing at the end). I also sent this video to pretty much everyone I know…and one friend promised to strip naked and only wear canvas bags if I could just get the song out of his head!
The Tim Minchin tune is now stuck in all three of our heads. Johann now sings it when we head grocery shopping. I fell sorry for the next checker who looks at us askance when we pull out our bags that don’t have their name brand on them (happens around here!) Since I instructed him (much to Tammy’s chagrin) to launch into the full version of the song. (Not the smartest move I’ve made in the past 14 years of marriage!)