Stemming the plastic tide

That stretch of warm weather in October had a Bay of Fundy beach calling us lately. We went to walk the dogs at low tide and I ended up filling a bag full of plastic garbage. Yes, I must be turning into one of those older women.

Included were a couple of pop bottles, ties for newspaper bundles and partial sheets of hard plastic, but those thick elastics used by lobster fishers were everywhere. It took no time at all to collect a load.

I hate the thought of plastic entering the ocean when its destination and potential impacts are uncontrollable.

There are a couple of ways to stem the plastic tide underway, such as the ban on micro-beads in cosmetics, and efforts to ban single- use plastic bags. Always more could be done, and doing more could save the oceans.

Apparently 1.8 billion plastic bags are used in the United States every week. Two women on the South Shore have just this month brought a positive idea to reduce shopping bags to their community. Katherine Barrett and Teresa Quilty are boosting Boomerang Bags.

Made out of recycled material, Boomerang Bags are intended to reduce consumer reliance on the ubiquitous plastic bag. Originating in Australia about four years ago, the notion is that anyone who forgets to bring bags from home can pick up a Boomerang Bag at a store and return it later.

I’ve read that the concept has caught on in more than 400 communities around the world. University students have contributed what sewing skills they have to put cloth bags at the front of stores.

The two Nova Scotia women lined up seven stores in the Lunenburg area to have the bags available. A number of volunteers stepped up when they saw a Facebook posting and sewed 100 of the fabric bags.

Last week was Waste Reduction Week in Nova Scotia. I went to a poorly attended fair held to try and educate the public about reducing waste. Too bad consumer education didn’t get a boost.

Taproot Farm was there and surely Patricia Bishop and Josh Oulton represent the agriculture community conscience that won’t allow crops to rot. They welcomed families and food security organizations onto their farm this summer to glean.

This is an important practice when 40 per cent of food in the United States never gets eaten and in our country, $ 31 billion worth of food is wasted each year. We are all responsible to close the waste gap.

Nick Jennery, the executive director of Feed Nova Scotia, believes food banks should be doing more to prevent retailers from dumping decent food.

Jennery, who recently spoke at Acadia University, is using leased refrigerator trucks that can pick up perishables and other foods from stores.

If 47 per cent of food waste happens at home, we all need to be thinking about these issues.

I picked up an interesting diagram at the Valley Waste Resource Management booth about how to use refrigerators better. Food will go bad first in the warm places in the fridge. They include the door and the upper shelves, so it’s a good idea to plan your storage carefully.

Among a raft of sensible ideas to reduce waste that I’m trying to practice are: saying no to straws, carrying a water bottle, recycling egg and berry cartons at the farmers’ market, and using rags instead of paper towels. Stop and consider.