A rant about plastic bags

[petep9000]

A quick rant. I mean, are we supposed to carry our European-style mesh bags, or our Land's End canvas bags with us wherever we go regardless if we think we'll be shopping? Carry them 'just in case'?? On the way home from work I had to pick up a prescription for my antibiotic, some toilet paper and some shaving creme before the pharmacy closed. No time to stop home first to get my mesh bag. So, one plastic bag. Next door was the Chinese restaurant, I ordered some veg dumplings. Another bag. Then I had to go to the supermarket and get milk. Another bag.

Three bags total tonight. You just can't win. It's like digging a hole on the shore, no matter how much you scoop out of it the water keeps filling it up. I try to use them for garbage or for lunch, or for throwing out smelly leftovers (if any). But it's a losing battle, I have a HUGE plastic bag from 'Target' stuffed to the top with other plastic bags that I'm too conflicted to throw away.

I can't imagine why 3M or Dow Chemical or whoever makes these things can't also devise a way of recycling them. The raw material for new bags would be the old ones. I mean, who hasn't seen plastic melt in their life? They can't create a huge cauldron of melted plastic bags and make new ones from that? No, of course they can't. The molten bags leach toxins into the air. It's a vicious cycle. This planet is doomed to be engulfed in plastic bags and plastic water bottles...it's already happening.