2049 replies to this topic

[vortoozo]

Car ownership has zero correlation with the amount of new bags being produced.

You can also leave on lights when you're not at home, or turn them off.

Or keep the water running when you're brushing your teeth, or not.

Every choice is independent of the other.

[Mike K.]

I wish I could have taken a photo (I was driving) but I saw a reusable bag being blown down a street like a tumbleweed. It’ll take a while for it to get to the ocean but it was well on its way.

[Nparker]

Car ownership has zero correlation with the amount of new bags being produced....

"Single use" bags have zero correlation with climate change, but that's the bill of goods we are being sold.

[DustMagnet]

"Single use" bags have zero correlation with climate change, but that's the bill of goods we are being sold.

 

I thought the bag ban was about plastics in the oceans not climate change.  Is the suggestion that plastics in the oceans is contributing to change?

[vortoozo]

"Single use" bags have zero correlation with climate change, but that's the bill of goods we are being sold.

 

That's patently untrue. It takes energy to create and transport bags. It takes energy to recycle bags (when that's even possible). And certainly burning bags for energy does not have a positive impact.

Fewer bags being distributed at point of sale = fewer bags being made, transported & disposed of.

[mbjj]

I wish I could have taken a photo (I was driving) but I saw a reusable bag being blown down a street like a tumbleweed. It’ll take a while for it to get to the ocean but it was well on its way.

I frequently toodle around on google maps looking at english villages my ancestor came from. I saw a large reusable grocery bag in the middle of the road the other day in England and had a good chuckle over it.

Edited by mbjj, 16 May 2019 - 03:43 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

That's patently untrue. It takes energy to create and transport bags. 

 

right.  so carrying (relatively heavy) reusable bags in your car at all times "just in case" burns more energy than not having any bags on board.  and just using plastic bags supplied by the store to bring groceries home once a week.  if you are going to count the rather insignificant energy used by bag delivery trucks you have to apply a similar argument to reusable bags being driven around all the time and not used often.

 

 

also:

 

This is a huge amount. But it's actually a pretty small percentage of the total amount of plastic we throw away: 31.8 million tons annually. And this total is still smaller than the amount of food waste we throw away — 36.4 million tons per year.

In other words, we throw away ten times as much food as plastic bags. If we care about reducing garbage, fixating on the huge amount of food waste might make more sense.

 

https://www.vox.com/...ags-environment

 

 

When it comes to greenhouse gases, they're once again dramatically less important than the products we buy and put inside them.

In 2002, when considering a tax on plastic bags, the Australian government conducted one of the most detailed studiesof their lifetime environmental costs. They calculated that an average bag has .48 megajoules (MJ) of energy embodied in it — that is, .48 MJ of energy went into producing the plastic polymer, manufacturing the bag, and transporting the various inputs to make it all possible. More energy means more greenhouse gas emissions.

For comparison, making a one-liter plastic bottle — the kind used to hold water, juice, or soda — requires 3.4 MJ. A can of corn requires about 12.82 MJ. A single order of french fries uses up about 3.7 MJ, and a quarter-pound hamburger about 19.88 MJ.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 16 May 2019 - 03:53 PM.

[vortoozo]

Consuming less of anything, when done in a sufficient volume, has social & environmental benefits.

BC Hydro has been encouraging people to turn down the thermostat at night for years.

It used to be normal to leave the water running when people brushed their teeth.

As a society we have made great strides in these areas.

There's no reason we can't keep making incremental improvements to our consumption.

[Victoria Watcher]

why would we turn the water off while brushing our teeth from October to May when in those months we are doing the equivalent by the millions of gallons spilling over the dam wall?

[Victoria Watcher]

if people would forego one pet or one new car purchase they’d save the environmental footprint of a million plastic bags. doesn’t that make more sense?

[vortoozo]

It would be great if people conserved in more ways than one. It's not either/or.

[rjag]

It would be great if people conserved in more ways than one. It's not either/or.

How long is a piece of string? I’m sure if you asked everyone would respond that they have made changes and are conserving in their own way... it really comes down to whose yardstick you measure it by.

If you asked David Suzuki how he conserves it would be a different answer from George Bush and yet Bush has less of a Carbon footprint than many of these climate prophets and yet many of the climate acolytes worship Lord Suzuki and ignore his personal excesses

Edited by rjag, 17 May 2019 - 08:21 PM.

[Nparker]

No kids, no car, no single-detached home in the suburbs. I don't worry too much about my carbon footprint. Which reminds me, I need to go turn on my bathroom tap...I will be brushing my teeth in about 15 minutes and I like the water to be just the right temperature for rinsing.

[rmpeers]

I thought the bag ban was about plastics in the oceans not climate change. Is the suggestion that plastics in the oceans is contributing to change?

Didn't it turn out that the bag ban was not about fighting climate change but about some logistical challenge the City was having?

[Mike K.]

The energy to create a reusable bag equals 28 traditional plastic bags. Many of these bags are also laden with plastic themselves, and as with all things, have a limited shelf life and need to be replaced depending on how often they’re used.

[Victoria Watcher]

It would be great if people conserved in more ways than one. It's not either/or.

 

why conserve toothbrushing water though?   it's either going to spill into your sink or it's going to spill over the dam if you turn the water off while brushing.  save wear and tear on your sink valve taps by just doing one on/off cycle per brush instead of two

[vortoozo]

We experience drought conditions every summer and many Island communities go on some sort of water restriction every year.

[Victoria Watcher]

including our community for no reason at all.

[Nparker]

...many Island communities go on some sort of water restriction every year.

including our community for no reason at all.

Not quite no reason. Watering restrictions seem to translate into higher usage rates each year to make up for any revenue shortfalls.

[todd]

I wish I could have taken a photo (I was driving) but I saw a reusable bag being blown down a street like a tumbleweed. It’ll take a while for it to get to the ocean but it was well on its way.

And why didn’t you take a photo Mike? It was because you actually didn’t have anything to photograph.