Metroplex Alternative Energy Caucus: An Unkind take on the value of Plastic Bags

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

An Unkind take on the value of Plastic Bags

More on the topic of a seven cent point of sale tax in Texas. While I realize that Grand Prairie's fourth largest employer, a plastic products manufacturer, is right here in the heart of the Metroplex, I am honor bound to make this point.

Here are the best of the liter from a fifteen minute photo shoot which is an oblique take on what I think of plastic point of sale shopping convenience bags.

Source: http://www.green-metroplex.com/Assorted/Political/Viewpoints/on/Plastic_Bags.html

This is an Unkind take on the value of Plastic Bags.
Retail Vendors may find this page inflammatory.

In the news of late is legislation in the Texas House of Representatives on an initiative to put a seven cent tax on plastic bags at point of sale.

Below are a small sampling of a much larger batch that took me less than 15 minutes to find, frame and shoot for your viewing pleasure. Needless to say - I thoroughly support the Seven Cent point of Sale tax initiative and think that it should be universal ANYWHERE at any Point of Sale in the United States and in the world at large.

In all the oceans of the world there are now rafts of plastic debris larger than the State of Texas and in the Gulf of Mexico there are two the size of Main, I am told. Massive seagoing vessels are forced to steer around this mass of junk for fear of clogging up their cooling intake water systems that keep their boilers running at top efficiency.

PVC plastic is inert and does not bio-degrade in the sun, water or ground.

However in landfills it does leach into the aquifer and can now be found in water from any artisian well or pumped well in every state. In the ocean the constant motion breaks the plastic into trillions of microscopic sized granules which are breathed or eaten by plankton and microscopic krill at the bottom of the food chain. Sea Eagles, Penguins, Seals and Sea Lions, Polar Bears, Eskimos in the north and lobster and seafood eaters in Restaurants, now all have PVC plastic in their livers and spleens.

Actually, I lied, I wish that PVC Plastic Bags and containers were put on the same outlaw list the same as DDT pesticide of the past century. Meanwhile the pictures below show their aesthetic contribution to your neighborhood.

Pretty winter neighborhood scene, with one exception.