I can’t believe people are complaining about losing their plastic bags, with the price of petroleum so high. It’s true there are a lot more plastics littering the beaches, from candy wrappers to bottle tops to Tipperillo filters. Believe me, my back hurts from picking them up every time I walk on the sand. However, if it saves a seal not to have bags, I’m for it! I also have worked for wildlife rescue and know that if a seal mistakes a burst balloon, which has cute little wavy legs, or an attractively undulating grocery sack, for a tasty squid and eats it, its digestive tract is blocked forever, causing both starvation and lack of evacuation.
Imagine that for yourself, your own body. The only way to save that mammal, if its problem can be discerned by some happy chance, is to operate. Way more expensive than dropping the high-energy consumptive oil-based eyesore which, by the way, clogs every cactus and creosote bush in the Arizona desert.
I just got my Sierra Club magazine and there was a little snippet: China has banned plastic bags for their entire giant country. Thus 37 million gallons of crude oil a year will be saved thus! Now that is heartening.
Beate Nilsen