Ed Said: What happened to 'Plastic Fantastic'?

 

Everything has pros and cons. In my lifetime I have come to respect and accept the marvels of technology. I could, on one hand, still live quite happily in the world I knew over 50 years ago, but on the other it would barely be possible as technology has changed our lives on so many levels. One of man’s greatest inventions has been, without a doubt, plastic – and already I hear wails of derision.

Firstly, as a kid, we had bread but we didn’t have sliced bread. That in itself was a revelation. Then it came wrapped in waxed paper and in time along came plastic bags, not just for bread but for literally, everything. Nowadays any article you can ever buy locally will get put into a plastic bag of one form or another; yoghurt, dips, honey, milk, water (which, 50 years ago simply came from a tap) fruit, veges… ad infinitum.

Then as communication and international relations made the world smaller we were attracted to things like Amazon, ebay, Alibaba and the availability of much cheaper products from China, who had become a major world trader. World trade means products must be heavily insulated against damage which means reams of plastic bubble wrap and masses of polystyrene, the stuff, as tiny balls or pellets, which litter our beaches and are found inside dead and dying fish. The expedience of overseas buying is an epidemic with no likelihood of slowing in the immediate future.

Over the past couple of decades movements to ‘save the planet’ have exploded into action and plastic has gone from panacea to pariah – one of the major antagonists being targeted is the simple single-use supermarket bag. Get rid of them by all means, we can make a difference, but let’s face it, we are never going to get rid of plastic or petroleum-based products. Just imagine the amount of plastic products being used in the current building boom. Just like ‘zero waste’ it’s an impossible dream. This crusade is almost specifically aimed at supermarkets, many of which are now joining the bandwagon and ironically, returning to heavy paper bags that I personally used when working in grocery as my first job out of school in 1965. The pendulum has begun to swing back again. 

Alternatively today I read about deli customers at Countdown not allowed to use their own containers due to possible contamination and illness from not cleaning their own containers properly. What are we coming to? Should the customers not carry some responsibility for their own receptacles? Surely this whole crusade is getting out of hand.

There is actually no such thing as a single-use bag. I, and many people I know have drawers full of supermarket bags that get used time and time again – that’s the beauty of the product. The city of Tokyo, for example, uses more plastic bags in a day than the whole of New Zealand uses in a year. This crusade against plastic is a noble one but getting rid of plastic bags has become psychological as much as practical – or perhaps even impractical. So, no plastic supermarket carry-bag but almost every item in your trundler has an element of plastic to it. There is nothing more contradictory than the actions or psychology of humans. 

Two New Zealand plastic bag making factories are likely to close business by the end of the year because of this change in attitudes. Good you say? What about the livelihoods of the employees in these factories. Are people not important any more? The poor old plastic bag is made out to be the bad guy in all of this. He cannot defend himself despite giving marvellous service for well over half a century.
The answer is actually quite simple.This is not a plastic bag problem. It’s a people problem.

Just MHO.

Rob