Question

Regarding to "Bag It" movie by Suzan Beraza,

How corporations encourage us to buy more single-use disposable things that turn out to be damaging to the planet and to our own health?

https://tubitv.com/movies/317275/bag_it

Answer 1

Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes-single-use disposable bags that we mindlessly throw away. But where is "away?" Where do the bags and other plastics end up, and at what cost to our environment, marine life and human health? Bag It follows "everyman" Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic world. Jeb is not a radical environmentalist, but an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics. Jeb's journey in this documentary film starts with simple questions: Are plastic bags really necessary? What are plastic bags made from? What happens to plastic bags after they are discarded? Jeb looks beyond plastic bags and discovers that virtually everything in modern society-from baby bottles, to sports equipment, to dental sealants, to personal care products-is made with plastic or contains potentially harmful chemical additives used in the plastic-making process. When Jeb's journey takes a personal twist, we see how our crazy-for-plastic world has finally caught up with us and what we can do about it.

WHAT IS SINGLE-USE PLASTIC AND WHY IS IT A PROBLEM?

Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics, are used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. These items are things like plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, soda and water bottles and most food packaging.

We produce roughly 300 million tons of plastic each year and half of it is disposable! World-wide only 10% of plastic items are recycled. The nature of petroleum based disposable plastic makes it difficult to recycle and they have to add new virgin materials and chemicals to it to do so. Additionally there are a limited number of items that recycled plastic can be used.

Petroleum based plastic is not biodegradable and usually goes into a landfill where it is buried or it gets into the water and finds it’s way into the ocean. Although plastic will not biodegrade, (decompose into natural substance like soil), it will break down into tiny particles after many years. In the process of breaking down, it releases toxic chemicals (additives that were used to shape and harden the plastic) which make their way into our food and water supply.

These toxic chemicals can be found in our bloodstream. And the latest research has linked them to cancer, infertility, birth defects, impaired immunity and many other ailments.

We produce hundreds of millions of tons of plastic every year, most of which cannot be recycled. It’s obvious that we need to use less plastic, move towards sustainable products and services, and come up with technology that recycles plastic more efficiently.

It’s said that we live in a disposable society. But the word disposable is a misnomer. Disposable is considered throwaway, something you use once and dump, regardless of the life that may be left in it. As a frugal shopper with a concern for the state of our environment, that just won’t do.

I often reuse many so-called “one-time-use” items, and I asked friends, family, and colleagues to tell me which disposable items they squeeze more life from. Here’s my list, including some of the surprising ideas I was given.

1. Butter Wrappers

If you’re like most people, you unwrap your butter, pop the stick into your handy holder, and throw the wrapper away. But wait a second — instead of trashing the wrappers, keep them in a sandwich bag. The next time you need to grease a baking tray or dish, you’ve got something all ready to go.

2. One-Day Contact Lenses

There have been great advances made in contact lenses. The ones I am wearing right now, for astigmatism, are relatively new. And there are lenses that can last months or just one day. But those one-day lenses have a lot of people thinking about extended use. Can you wear them again? Even just one more day would double their life span and halve your costs every year.

Well, it seems that the answer is yes, if you clean them correctly and store them well. Use a bubbling hydrogen peroxide solution, which is designed to remove germs and bacterial matter, and you should be fine using one-day contacts for an additional day or two. The contact lens industry says you are at risk for eye infection if you reuse one-day contacts, but I’ve been doing it for two years, and my eyes are just fine.

However, I think the most telling evidence comes in the legal wording you'll find hidden in the fine print on every box of one-day contact lenses.. It reads thus, and relates to lenses prescribed specifically for daily wear:

Eye Care Practitioners may prescribe the lenses either for single-use disposable wear or frequent/planned replacement wear with cleaning, disinfection and scheduled replacement . When prescribed for frequent/planned replacement wear, the lenses may be disinfected using a chemical disinfection system.

3. Disposable Film Cameras

35mm film is making a comeback. It was bound to happen. What was once out of style becomes vogue again, and vice-versa. When you buy a cheap disposable film camera, don’t hand the whole thing in to the photo department at the store. Strip it, remove the film, and replace it.

4. Disposable Digital Cameras

These cameras are a whole different ball game. They are specifically designed to be one-time-use products, so the camera companies can make big money by charging you to download the photos and then reselling the camera to someone else. Well, you can get around that. It’s not super easy, but if you have a soldering iron and some patience, you can make that disposable digital camera into a camera you can use again and again, downloading the pictures free at home whenever you want.

5. Disposable Camcorders

Disposable camcorders are also built to be reused…just not by the general public. The idea is that you hand them in, your videos are downloaded, and you get them back. But if you want to practice a little hacking at home, you can turn a one-time-use camcorder into a very reusable and handy device. Of course, since the price for the item is higher, the level of difficulty goes up..

6. Plastic “Silverware”

I’ve seen plastic knives, forks, and spoons in the dish dryer before. I was a little confused at first — isn’t the whole point to save on doing dishes? But it’s possible to get a good week of use from one set of plastic cutlery before recycling it. National Geographic has more on the subject. They do say that after about a week, the cutlery should not be used for sanitary reasons, but even then you can always use it for other tasks, including handy markers for plants. Just write whatever you planted in Sharpie on the handle and plunge it into the soil.

7. Dryer Sheets

They make our clothes smell great, and how do we reward them? With a one-way trip to the dump. Well, dryer sheets should not go straight into the trash. They have many uses. You can put them inside shoes and clothes drawers to keep everything smelling fresh. You can use them to clean the bottom of a dirty iron. And you can run them along baseboards, ceiling fans, and bookcases, just like one of those Swiffer dusters.

8. Plastic Yogurt Containers

Don’t just bin the yogurt pot when you’ve finished with the delicious contents. If you’re someone with green fingers, you’ll find that yogurt pots are the perfect size for seedling starter pots. You can, of course, buy small seedling pots from a hardware store, but for the same price (or less, actually), you can use yogurt pots and get a healthy snack thrown into the bargain. If you buy the bigger, quart-sized yogurt pots, clean them out and use them to store leftover food, chicken stock, soup, and other perishables.

9. Plastic Bags From Newspapers

The newspaper comes to you in a thin plastic bag to keep it protected from the elements (and it’s also another space for advertisers to shout at you). When you bring in the newspaper, the bag goes into the trash. But wait — if you live in a city that’s prone to rain, hold onto those bags. They’re small enough to fit in a purse or bag without taking up any room, but make a perfect umbrella bag. When you have to take your wet umbrella indoors, either for work or visiting friends, simply pop it in the bag.

10. Swim Diapers

My first reaction was “seriously?!” But after talking to a few parents who’ve done this, it makes good sense. Unlike regular diapers, swim diapers are made to take much more punishment. They’re designed to withhold the water, obviously, so you can put them in the wash two or three times (at least) before they start coming loose at the sides. Of course, don’t wash a poopy diaper; that’s taking it too far. But if it’s just wet, throw it in the washing machine. When it’s washed, let it AIR DRY. Otherwise, it will become a hard and crunchy mess. With the average pack of swim diapers costing around $12, you’ll rack up the savings in summer.

11. Plastic Takeout Containers

When you order Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Moroccan, or any other takeout cuisine, it will often come in small plastic containers. Give them a good wash and reuse them. They are obviously good for holding leftover food, but they’re also great containers for your craft room or workshop. I use them for screws, nuts, bolts, and pencils. Not only are they the perfect size and stackable, but you sometimes also get a whiff of delicious food just before you start your project!

12. Wine Corks

Other than putting it back into the half-full bottle of wine, what use are these corks? You just throw them out, right? Well, not so fast. Wine corks have many other uses. If you chop them up and add them to soil, they make good moisture-retaining mulch. You can scrub high-carbon kitchen knives with them, or protect the blades. You can even soak them in rubbing alcohol and make cheap and effective fire lighters.