Everything Green: The Other Recycling Bin

Each week like most Wilmington residents, our family hops in the car and makes the trip across town to the Wilmington Plaza to do our grocery shopping. Depending on the day of the week and the section of town you are in, we see almost every house in every neighborhood with the blue and green bins out front with their two weeks’ worth of recycling. This is awesome.

For the most part, our family is a Market Basket family and as I stand at the checkout listening to the beep, beeps of scanning groceries, I look around and see hundreds of plastic bags making their way out of the store, for their 10 minute trip across town.

Most shoppers in this state still use plastic bags for their groceries each week. And the harsh reality is that for 10 minutes of use from the store to your house, experts say it will take between 500 and 1000 years for a bag to break down in a landfill. I am not pointing fingers here, just stating the facts. A gross amount of plastic bags also end up in the ocean. What a bummer! (I won’t get into how sea turtles that eat jellyfish are killed because they think the bags are food).

So what is the Other Recycling Bin you ask? It is the bin at the front of Market Basket where you can recycle all of your plastic bags. Target and Kohls also have bins for plastic bag collection now too, and they will take ANY plastic bag. It doesn’t have to come from their store. And remember too, that if you are buying two items, that you can say “I don’t need a bag”, because the reality is, that you don’t.

Although Market Basket often seems to be cheaper than their competitors, those bags still contribute to their overhead costs so maybe, just maybe by eliminating plastic bag use, we can collectively lower their operating costs, in return lowering the food cost? It’s a thought.

So let’s take the next step for Wilmington and do the same with those bags as you do with the blue and green bins. Put them back in your car for your next visit and throw them in the Other bin. Or better yet get some reusable bags and use them!

If you are with me here, and will pledge to make an effort to improve your plastic bag use please do leave a comment such as “I am in!” or “I pledge to make an effort!” and send this link to your friends to get them on board too.

Thanks for your support!

Did you know... that the State DEP has a joint
initiative with the grocery and supermarket industry to reduce the number of
disposable paper and plastic shopping bags distributed in Massachusetts?

http://www.mass.gov/dep/public/press/1111fadp.htm

For more information on plastic bag environmental data visit: www.envirosax.com/plastic_bag_facts