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A Day in the Life of a Plastic Bag

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When Katie Perry released her song “Firework” in 2010, she raised an existential question when she asked: “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?” If you’re one of those people who at some point wondered how does it actually feel to be a plastic bag, read on because today is your lucky day and you’re about to find out. If you’re not one of those people, read on anyway because this stuff is pretty interesting.

Today we’ll take you through the journey of a plastic bag called “Plastia”, your average plastic bag next door, who just like her other fellow plastic bags, is desperately trying to find her way back “home”. At first, Plastia might appear quite harmless and even useful. After all, she’s just trying to help you carry all your groceries back home. But don’t let appearances fool you, she’s not as innocent or well-intentioned as she seems. Just like her 160,000 brothers and sisters who are used globally every second, Plastia has known since day one that she has a bigger purpose in life and that she must find her way to her Promised Kingdom: the deep bottom of the ocean.

When you think of dangerous sea creatures, you probably think of sharks, sea snakes, jellyfishes or crocodiles. Now you can add one more creature to the list: Plastic Bags. Yes, you read that correctly. Plastic Bags are one of the world’s most dangerous “creatures” and they cause the biggest threat to our oceans. And the sad part is that they are everywhere, in every corner, in every home.

But back to Plastia who has just landed in your home. For most of us, our interaction with plastic bags is limited to our trip from the supermarket until we reach home and the bags are emptied. For Plastia though, that’s just a very short span in her long, long life which starts the day she is manufactured from tiny granules that are extracted from oil by the seas (where she will most likely end up back to eventually). After her birth in the factory, she is sold to shops or supermarkets where she waits impatiently for you to get her out of there. Luckily for Plastia, that day has finally come. As you head out of the supermarket, Plastia looks ahead as an empty plastic bag that accidentally made his way out by clinging on to the rest is blown away by the wind. She wonders if their paths will ever cross again someday. She is now transported to her new home, a welcome change from the supermarket, but she knows she won’t last long there as you have no more use for her now that you’ve emptied her. Some of her friends get recycled as garbage bags and Plastia is relieved that she’s been spared from that mission. After being tossed away with the rest of the useless plastic bags, her long awaited journey towards the Promised Kingdom finally begins.

Released into the wilderness, Plastia is now at the mercy of the wind, drifting through and wanting to start again. The wind blows her from one place to another as she enjoys the view and the feeling of freedom. She finds herself at the local park where she spots her old plastic friend from the supermarket. As she runs towards him, her excitement is short-lived when a dog suddenly leaps out of nowhere and attacks her friend. Realizing that the park is not very plastic bag friendly, she starts to make her way out. Unfortunately for Plastia, the local garbage collector spots her before she can run off, picks her up and throws her in the trash.

Plastia now finds herself in a dark, sticky and smelly place without any air to breathe. She can feel that she is being transported somewhere, but the road is much bumpier than the ride from the supermarket. After a few long and dark hours, the smell starts to get stronger and more uncomfortable and Plastia now knows that she is approaching a landfill. Once at the landfill, Plastia is tossed over a huge pile of garbage where she crashes in exhaustion, too weak to resist or try to get away.

For most items that end up in landfills, the story ends here where they live out the rest of their days until they decompose. But Plastia is a strong soul and a survivor. In fact, plastic bags can survive 700 years in landfills before they start degrading, severely harming the environment in the process. But that’s only if Earth is lucky enough to have them stay in the landfill. Most of the time, it gets worse. Being extremely thin and lightweight, it’s only a matter of time until Plastia is transported again by the wind, taken to the sea shores and getting swallowed up by the waves until she finally reaches her Promised Kingdom, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (a floating landfill of garbage in the Pacific twice the size of Texas, mostly composed of plastic). Once in the ocean, Plastia, the once harmless and useful grocery bag, is now responsible for the death of birds, fishes and sea animals who mistake the plastic for food and consume it. Some animals die, others survive and are captured by humans who get to eat both the fish and the plastic unknowingly at the same time. As mentioned, it takes 700 years for plastic bags to start degrading and up to 1000 years for them to fully degrade. But even their degradation isn’t a relief. Plastic never really degrades naturally, instead it breaks down into the small particles of petroleum it is made of, which again pollute the ocean and end up being eaten by fish.

We can’t know for sure what is Plastia’s faith. Will she stay forever stuck in the landfills? Will she fulfill her destiny and find her way to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Or will she get eaten by animals before she can reach there? Whatever happens to her, we know it’s not good news to the environment, to the ocean or to the animals. It is estimated that less than 3% of plastic bags worldwide get recycled. That’s a pretty low percentage if you ask us. Please limit your use of plastic bags and start recycling because the ocean is worth saving.

They Say Travel ‘Light’, We Say Travel ‘Sustainably’

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Every bucket list has one thing in common: traveling. We are by nature wanderers, seekers, discoverers. If we’re not traveling, we’re planning for our next trip, or at least dreaming about it. Traveling opens our minds, eyes and hearts.

Unfortunately, traveling isn’t very sustainable and that is by itself a challenge for us sustainably-oriented peeps who love to travel. In a perfectly sustainable and eco-friendly world, no plane would ever take off. But we all know that is not an option nor a solution. So what can we do to make our travels more sustainable and reduce our carbon footprint?  

It starts with you (everything always does) and with little individual habits that may not seem like much but, collectively, can have a huge impact. Here are some tips from Dulce on how you can enjoy your vacation without compromising your sustainable ethics!

Transportation

  • When available, always book a direct flight instead of one with layover. That will reduce your carbon footprint immensely.
  • The best way to discover a new city is by feet or by riding a bike. If you’re going long distances or weather gets in the way, resort to public transportation or at least a shared cab.

Hotels

  • More and more eco hotels are becoming available worldwide. When planning your trip, try searching for an eco hotel in the area or at least a hotel with sustainable practices.
  • Don’t forget to switch off all lights, turn off the AC and unplug your chargers and electronic devices every time before leaving your room!
  • Avoid giving out your laundry at the hotel. Most hotels wash each room’s laundry separately even if it’s just a few items. That’s a whole lot of laundry loads. Very, very bad.
  • In some countries, water is a scarce resource. Keep your showers short and try not to consume a lot of water.

Shopping

  • Shop at local shops and dine at local restaurants instead of big chains. It’ll boost the local economy you are visiting and will also give you a richer experience of the country’s culture.
  • Bring your own shopping bag with you to reduce the use of plastic bags.

Behavior

  • Respect cultures, norms and rules, and try not to offend locals.
  • It goes without saying, but don’t litter! Keep the country you’re visiting clean (or at least don’t participate in making it even more polluted).

Animals

  • Don’t disrupt the wildlife by feeding them or getting too close to them!
  • Avoid tourist activities that encourage animal slavery such as elephant riding or tiger walking.

Give Back

  • Finally, give back by donating to a local charity before heading back home!

Posted by Dulce Salerno

Love Animals? Then Quit Fast Fashion

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If animals could speak, they would probably say something like “please don’t wear that.” And it’s not because they are activists and want to save the environment or protect human rights, but because they want to save themselves too.

We may not realize it, but our beauty and fashion choices directly affect, harm and endanger animals. In recent years, we’ve all grown more conscious about the dark side of fast fashion and probably heard about its negative effect on the environment and the poor working conditions of the people who make these clothes (if you haven’t yet, we strongly suggest you read more about this issue here). Yet, not enough light has been shed on the animals that suffer at the expense of our fashion habits.

So for all you animal lovers out there, here’s an insight on what fast fashion and beauty does to animals and what you can do to avoid it.

 

Leather, fur and animal skin:

We’ll start with the obvious one that most people already know about but too often ignore. Leather, exotic fur and animal skin fashion products such as shoes, bags, coats and jackets are often associated with superior quality, luxury and an expensive price tag. But as high as we might’ve paid for that ‘luxurious’ item, it’s worth remembering that an animal has had to pay an even higher price for it. In the name of fashion, these animals have to go through forced farming, food deprivation, mistreatment, painful killing methods, and sometimes even being skinned alive. And you probably wouldn’t wish that to even your worst enemy.

What you can do: Buy sustainable leather or vegan leather (mushroom leather and pineapple leather are really making headlines now), opt for faux-fur instead of real fur (although we’re not really enthusiastic about this given that faux-fur is rarely environmentally friendly), or buy recycled, upcycled or secondhand products.

 

Wool:

This one is a little less obvious especially since wool is usually praised for being a sustainable material. And while it is true that this material can be eco-friendly, it is not always produced in the most ethical manner. Sheep are usually sheared once a year for the purpose of using their wool and this process can be quite painful for them. In Australia, where most of the wool comes from, it is common practice to use a painful and inhumane technique called “mulesing” to try to avoid “flystrike” (a common problem in the Australian climate during the hot months where flies attack sheep). “Mulesing” involves cutting flesh from the sheep’s backside and is often carried out without any painkillers.

What you can do: learn more about which type of wool each brands use and opt for brands that use non-mulesed wool.

 

Cosmetics:

Animal cruelty doesn’t just exist in the clothing industry but also in the cosmetics industry. A lot of times, those beauty products that you are putting on your face have first been tried and tested on animals first in the most cruel imaginable settings. So do you really want to wear animal blood on your face?

What you can do: There are a lot of cosmetics brands that do not test their products on animals and sell cruelty-free makeup. Choose to support these brands instead and refuse to buy beauty products from brands that sell animal-tested products.

 

Micro-fibers:

Fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world. And the pollution cycle doesn’t just end after the clothing items have been manufactured and shipped, but carries on every time the item is being washed. When we put our clothes in the washing machine, synthetic microfibers are released while the items are being washed and this debris later ends up in our sea. This directly affects the fish and marine life who end up swallowing those microfibers and therefore disrupting their food chain. The lower the quality of the materials, the more microfibers it shreds while being washed.

What you can do: Skip cheap materials that release more microfibers and instead choose natural and organic material and higher quality products. And this might seem a little odd to you, but wash your clothes less often and only when necessary (denim products for example don’t need to be washed that often).

 

Cotton Pesticides and Textile Dyes:

Synthetic microfibers aren’t the only fashion related pollutants that end up in the water and disrupt the sea life. Pesticides from cotton farming and the dyes used from textile processing also find a way into our rivers and as a result pollute our waters and the entire food chains, causing large amounts of fish to die every year.

What you can do: Buy organic cotton, eco-friendly products and sustainable materials such as bamboo that do not pollute the environment and water.

 

As you can see, fashion really isn’t just about you. It’s not just about what you wear, how great you look, how good it makes you feel or how unique your style is. More than often, there are other living beings involved and some of them don’t have a voice of their own to speak up. So don’t let fashion be something shallow that revolves only around your outer beauty and what’s in fashion this season. Let it instead be a choice that reflects your inner beauty and that considers and protects our little furry friends. As we like to say: be kind to animals, they’re the only friends who’ll never share your secrets.

Posted by Dulce Salerno