Kicking the plastic ... one bag at a time

Recent months have seen a rise in the number of column inches devoted to environmental issues in the local media.

We read of damaged water fronts, destroyed reefs, dead fish, dying palm trees and discussions about the plastic bag being Bahrain's 'national bird'.

We hear from politicians and community activists that everyone has a responsibility to act to conserve the environment, that we must all do our bit to protect our natural heritage, that 'every little helps' in the move towards an environmentally sustainable future. But, when faced with the enormity and complexity of challenges such as global warming, sustainable development, climate change, declining biodiversity, environmental degradation (and let's be honest, who really understands the meaning of these terms anyway?), often our response is ostrich-like: we put our head in the sand and do nothing because the problems are overwhelming, changing the habits of a life time is difficult and learning how to be more environmentally friendly takes time and energy.

Besides, how can one person's actions make a difference when all around people blithely ignore the plight of the environment? After all, who can say if one behaviour is 'green(er)' than another?

I guess I'm a 'pale green' environmentalist, the kind of person who half-heartedly walks the talk of environmentally sensitive behaviour mainly when it's easy to do so and doesn't really have an impact on my daily life.

However, this month, after walking past a piece of land for the nth time that was strewn with more plastic bags than plants, I decided that a bigger 'sacrifice' was necessary: I would give up plastic bags for a week in a (very unscientific) test of the premise that 'every little helps'.

Could I make a difference? I had hoped to enlist the participation of my friends in this experiment but when I mentioned that I wasn't just talking about plastic carrier bags, but bags of all shapes and sizes wherever they lurked in my life, then there was less enthusiasm.

Everyone was quite happy to 'say no to plastic' at the supermarket checkout. But doing without plastic bags to store food, to carry things out to the barbeque, to keep odds and ends safe, to collect the garbage and, here's a tricky one, to poop-a-scoop (dog owners will know exactly where I'm coming from), was a step too far.

This reluctance to change stems possibly from the reality that our plastic bag addiction is entrenched: plastic bags are handy, lightweight and, more often than not, free.

They're not prone to breaking like paper, easier to manipulate than a box or tin and more air and watertight than other materials.

Indeed, my addiction to plastic bags started at an early age. As a teenager, I used to refuse to carry shopping in one of my mum's awful granny-style, cloth reusable shopping bags.

This was 30 odd years ago when stylish plastic bags had just hit the market and I, a fashion conscious teenager, wouldn't be seen dead except with the most deluxe, plastic bags emblazoned with some company's hip logo.

How times have changed. Now we are more likely to hear teenagers remonstrating with their parents: You can't use that, plastic bags kill seals!

They say preparation is essential to the success of any endeavour so the first task before embarking on my Plastic Bag Free Week (PBFW) was to educate my household.

Having been married for 15 years and still to convince my husband that empty drinks cans go in the recycling container not the garbage bin, you'll appreciate the difficulties I faced.

Divorce loomed over the issue of not using plastic bags for dry cleaning, until I found an alternative (incidentally now viewed as better), a reusable cloth bag hidden at the back of my wardrobe.

Training the dry cleaning man to return the cloth bag each week is another, ongoing and very frustrating story.

On the other hand, my cleaner quickly grasped the concept of PBFW and joined in with gusto, wholeheartedly abandoning plastic bags in the (I'm ashamed to say) 10 waste bins in our house.

In the absence of comprehensive recycling facilities in Bahrain and a backyard composting facility, we did have to compromise on the wheelie bin liner.

Our initial worries that the bin would smell were it not emptied every day proved unfounded; one wheelie bin liner lasted seven days or more, and wasn't pungent, providing raw food scraps were wrapped in newspaper. Mid-PBFW, however, I was furious to find that the wheelie bin was emptied when only half full, despite my instructions to the refuse collectors not to do so unless it was full to the brim.

They probably thought I was slightly deranged when I came running at them brandishing a black bin bag following the discovery of their (honest) mistake.

Next up in the PBFW preparation stakes was to rid our house of the offending articles; anything in a plastic bag had to be re-homed (though in the interest of not creating a plastic bag mountain I did stash the bags in a corner for use when 'normality' returned to our household).

Fortunately, being something of a container queen, I had plenty of unused boxes waiting to be filled.

However, as the July 1 start date of my challenge loomed, the poop-a-scoop problem began to play on my mind. Just how was I going to deal with my dogs' natural wastes? I experimented with paper bags - not pleasant - sought out a pooper-scooper device - over designed and doesn't work well on grass - and tested new collection techniques - too gruesome to go into - until I hit upon a solution: the plastic sleeves used to protect magazines that are sent through the mail did the job perfectly!

Made of plastic but, as I would normally throw them out, a good compromise. I also perfected my collection technique to require fewer receptacles. Despite this, half way through PBFW I eagerly awaited the mail delivery as supplies of sleeves had dwindled dangerously low following a bumper 'harvest'.

I was perhaps fortunate that PBFW coincided with the recent drive by large local supermarkets to encourage their customers' to use less plastic bags. Also, over the years I've amassed a wide selection of reusable shopping bags and no extra purchases were necessary.

Thanks to special offers by local supermarkets, there have been some not so 'tasteful' or 'user-friendly' additions to my collection: fluorescent green clashes with most things, dirt brown is just plain ugly and is it only me who has short arms and has to drag the bags along the ground?

So depending on my needs, I can chose from a seriously un-trendy string bag, a selection of UK supermarket 'bags for life', a rather scratchy Hessian bag, a specially designed bag for bottles, a somewhat stylish polka-dot PVC shoulder bag, an unbleached cotton bag, a range of black, green and brown cloth bags, three cool bags I received free for purchasing too much stuff back in England, and the crowning glory, a canvas designer bag that wouldn't look out of place on a catwalk.

Always assuming that is that you remember to take the bags with you ... What I didn't anticipate during PBFW was the guilt I would feel every time I entered a hypermarket with my stash of bags.

I'd hide them in my handbag or neatly cover them with a huge shoulder bag so they were less conspicuous but the fear of being carted off on suspicion of shoplifting was real and ever present.

Store managers should note that it really is inconvenient to have to leave your empty bags at the entrance and wait for someone to retrieve them at the check out. It is even more ridiculous to shrink wrap them with yet more plastic, as at one store, to be allowed to take them in. By contrast, I was far more relaxed going into supermarkets.

Staff here didn't bat an eyelid when I boldly pushed my trolley along replete with an array of empty bags, though perhaps they have more sophisticated CCTV surveillance systems.

Thumbs up to the local grocery stores who were delighted to put all my fruit and vegetables lose in my bag. Also, I found that everyone was extremely helpful, if a little puzzled, when I asked for my things to go bag-less into my trolley and for the price barcode to be put either on the piece of paper I was carrying or directly on the item.

I was pleasantly surprised on a number of occasions at being thanked for my care and concern for the environment. However, not once was I asked at a checkout if I would like a reusable bag, generally having to fend off (un)helpful staff thrusting plastic bags at me, and, without exception, shop assistants reached for the ubiquitous plastic bag even in stores where there is a drive to reduce customers' dependency on plastic and when they could clearly see that I had my own supply of carriers.

Towards the end of PBFW, I began to notice that my shopping habits had changed, and not always for the better: in some cases I actively sought out shops that wouldn't be alarmed at my slightly odd behaviour, but in others, in order to avoid using plastic bags I purchased things in containers covered in shrink wrap thereby creating a bigger waste problem (though I did solve this by taking most of the packaging to RIA's Summer Camp for the children to use for arts and crafts activities).

The realisation that changing my plastic bag behaviour was more complicated than I thought prompted me to extend my PBFW for another week, not to punish my poor choices, but to try and overcome my desire to take the easy way out and essentially cheat!

The second week found me making bread (bread is generally sold in plastic bags, though hats off to one supermarket I found which provides paper bags), fully utilising my kitchen containers and stocking the freezer expertly without plastic bags (quite a feat I assure you) and overjoyed at the discovery that the amount of garbage going out of our house had been drastically reduced.

It seems that just as clutter expands to fill all available space, so too does garbage - more plastic bags means more bags to fill with trash!

Did I kick the plastic bag habit? Not entirely.

As with any addiction, it's a long slow road to break a dependency. I will admit to some relief when the two weeks were up for there are some occasions when nothing else but a plastic bag will do. But saying I don't have a choice is not an answer.

Reusable bags are readily, cheaply and, in some cases, freely available, though some are not particularly user-friendly or stylish. And, we could debate for hours whether the energy required to manufacture a non-plastic bag outweighs the impact of that of plastic.

For any budding entrepreneur out there, there's certainly a market for a stylish, 'green' lunch bag suitable for busy executives to house their 'lunch on the run' (plastic bags so don't go with a suit), a collapsible, yet strong, carton that would fit into a supermarket trolley so that goods could be easily transferred to a car, and a high quality, sustainable, designer bag for shopping mall purchases (including clothes) because quite honestly no one is going to be seen dead with some of these bags.

I'm proud to report that instead of seven half empty refuse bags leaving my premises a week, I'm down to one every 10 days, that these days I hardly ever have to return to my car for a forgotten reusable bag and that I'm less afraid to run the gauntlet of the security guards.

Have I made a difference? Probably not in the bigger scheme of thing, unless, of course, you, your family, your school and/or your business take up the challenge and hold a PBFW.

And, when you do, please chose the stores that welcome you with open arms: in these days of economic uncertainty, consumer power will surely have an impact.

Aramax initiative

Logistics firm, Dubai-based Aramex, has announced it has successfully introduced eco-friendly courier bags across its global network.

The major initiative, which began at the start of the year, involved phasing out all plastic bags for its express courier dispatches, replacing them with new eco-friendly, bio-degradable pouches.

Supporting the use of alternative resources, the switch demonstrates Aramex's commitment to reduce the use of plastic in its operations as part of a wider pledge towards environmentally sustainable business practices.

"Respecting the environment and caring for our communities are principles which are ingrained in the Aramex culture," said Raji Hattar, Aramex chief sustainability and compliance officer.

"The switch to bio-degradable pouches is yet another step forward for us as we move towards the use of environmentally-friendly products in every aspect of our operations."