What can be done to change the attitudes and habits about going "green"?

Question

Today I saw a lady put a whole cantaloupe into a plastic produce bag. Another time, I put all my canned goods into the milk crate that I was also buying. The cashier proceeded to bag (before I noticed) all the cans instead of leaving them in the crate. Yet another time (before reusables), I asked for my single loaf of bread to be removed from the shopping bag. She did so and then threw the bag in the trash.

My point is, what more can possibly be done to get the general public to "get it" as far as plastic waste and and recycling and reusing? I get so frustrated especially when "green" campaigns and awareness have been visibly going on for more than a decade. What more can we do? What needs to be done? I promote my reusable bags to friends saying the 99 cents price is great especially considering the stores give you 5 cent back per bag used. But no one changes. I don't even consider myself what might be called a "tree hugger", I just try to be responsible. Thoughts please?!

Answer 1

Hemp bags, no kidding!

Go to http://www.freethehemp.org

I just joined today... I reallize now that Hemp bags are the answer....  good luck...

And thanks for your question, we need more folks like you on this planet!!!

Answer 2

Considering the complete ignorance of our society, I suppose drastic measures have to be taken.  I still see single women or men cruising around town in SUV's, people using plastic bags at the grocery store, houses lit up like Christmas trees, the man across the street who spends an hour washing his Jag, it's endless.  I honeslty think the hike in gas prices is a good thing.  I think plastic bags should be eliminated all together.  People do not understand how important our Earth is and are either to lazy or ignorant to do anything about it.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" as they say, for now I'll do my part and hope everyone catches on.

Answer 3

it takes some folks longer to catch on.

i suspect that, next year when the oil lobby moves out of the white house, things will improve.

Answer 4

I am sure one answer is to use paper bags, rather than plastic, for many products. I am English, but I now live in Mexico, where the rubbish is collected 4 days a week, and ALL types of paper, plastic, cans, bottles etc. are collected and recycled twice a week. This quite impressed me, but what impressed me to a much higher degree, was the fact that they re-use everything. Pallets, boxes, etc.,  used to transport goods are turned into furniture. Cars are used until they disintegrate, and can be welded no further. All items are dismantled and used for different purposes.

Pity the U.S. dumps all their "old tractors" (gas-guzzlers) in neighbouring countries.

Parts of equipment/installations from EVERY home, business and vehicle are repaired/recycled. Sub-assemblies are repaired with individual components, e.g. tvs, microwave ovens, car water pumps, alternators, etc. The "repair, not replace" attitude is foremost here!

The bottom line..... people need to be educated from a young age, that these material things CANNOT, and MUST not be taken for granted.

Answer 5

You need to get a grip.

Answer 6

I don't have an answer, but just wanted to say that I hope I am setting an example for other people and perhaps giving them a chance to stop and think.  I always bring reusable bags with me and tell retailers that "I don't need a bag".  Once in a while, they will bag my stuff so quickly that I don't have time to tell them I don't need a bag, so I ask them to please take my things out of the bag and please use the bag for someone else.  They have always complied.  If more of us do this, we will use fewer bags, and if more of us do this, more of us will be leading by example.  A movement for change begins with a few people, and builds up into many.  So keep doing what you do and know that not only do your greener actions add up, but you are influencing others (whether it's apparent and immediate or not) to do greener things to save resources, too.  Keep it up!  :)

Answer 7

It's very simple. Stop us breeding. There are WAY too many people on this little planet.

Humans are consuming their very host, the planet on which they live and not allowing it to regenerate. Like any host that is attacked, it will eventually fail to regenerate, and as a consequence die. And guess what happens to the parasites that live on it at that point? They jump to another host.

Except we've only got one host. Then that's it, bye bye planet, bye bye human virus.

Answer 8

A good amont of reading in History and Economics is my suggestion.

Conserving the resources that one has stewardship over in order to extract from those resources the greatest benefit at the lowest cost is my definition of economy.

The following is a list of people how effectively carried out in spirit what I stated above in words:

Henry Ford

Jim (J.C.) Penny

Andrew Carnegie

John D. Rockefeller

Add to this list thousands of other, whom being good stewards of the things that they had, dug out of the ground material matter, that without the addition of human ingenuity is too often mistakenly, called a "natural resource". Made steal by combining these resource and purging out of them there undesirable components. Built, trains, plains, and automobiles and laid the roads, tracks, and airfields needed to operate them. Devise scamatics and schedules by which food which otherwise would have rotted on the farm (This would no doubt had been good for the soil, but bad for the farmer.) and transported it to market for consumption by those that could use it. These people brought American a better living (martially at least) to such a degree that in America poor people are fat, own and drive cars, we live in bigger and bigger house and live richer lives then any generation before us. These have all been ridiculed by the environmentalist movement whom having its stated goal: "The protection of the environment" has failed at this task if so it be that which is told us is true.

Now consider the, Upton Saint Clears, the Karl Marx’s, the environmentalists-"which are at least 95% of the reason that we have high gas prices right now. Ask yourselves what is the fruit of their endeavors and what good have they brought us????????

Socialism (Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party (n***s) Hitler) and Communism (Lenin,Stalin,Trotski,Moa,PoPot, "Chee", the list is endless.....

Have brought about political regimes which have murdered over 100 Million people in order to confiscate(steal) there goods "For the people" who staved or sat in a bread line for 3 hours.

And environmentalists if there policies are given the go ahead will destroy the transportation network that feeds the nation and much of the world.

The Soviet Union had some of the most "Progressive Environmental Laws" on the planet, that didn't stop them from polluting their empire to such a degree that the national life span dropped, shrinking the Aral Sea to about 1/3 of its original size or the like.

Promote individual ownership, and be good stewards of the things that you have and the net effect will be good stewardship.

PS  But what will we do if all those hemp bags catch on fire and polute the air?? Bet you'd like that, SMOKY! Ha Ha Ha

PS speculation is imposable when supply is high, thus you have never heard of sand costing a dollar a grain in Arabia due to speculation. It can not happen, its all about supply and demand.

Answer 9

So you're upset because people use shopping bags and because cashiers pack your groceries into shopping bags...

You're definitely overdoing it.

I suggest you allow people to live their lives as they please. Using plastic bags is not going to destroy the earth and reducing their use won't save the environment either.

Answer 10

No one person has the power to make people change.  All you can really do is continue to set an example and spread the word as much as possible. Believe it or not more and more people are buying and using the reusable bags.

Next time you want to use a crate or a box to pack your groceries be sure to tell the cashier at the beginning of your transaction.  The cost of everything is skyrocketing and affecting everyone from every walk of life, eventually people will get it, and change their ways.  Don't get frustrated no one has the power to change the entire world.  WE can only do it one person at a time.

Answer 11

There is a saying "penny wise, pound foolish", and plastic grocery bags are just not an environmental issue worthy of making enemies.

A lot of recycling is not cost effective, like glass.  And most "green" products are quite a bit more expensive than equivalent conventional products.

And then you have Al Gore riding in private jets with his mansion using more electricity in a month than the average home in a year.

There has been an enormous amount of environmental progress in the US over the past 30 years, most of it not apparent to the general public.  But the public has been inundated with environmental messages, that ultimately end up saying we are bad because we use energy and don't live like primative tribes living in hovels watching our children die before the age of five.

Right now the largest population in the world (China), has zilch respect for the environment.  Against that backdrop, bugging folks about plastic shopping bags and plastic water bottles isn't going to have any significant impact.

Answer 12

Yes and while less plastic is great,I bet you do alot more than you think.Do you flush tampons and tissue?Use more soap than is nessessary,take long baths or showers daily? Are you not concerned about your water quality?One day it will be so bad no amount of chemicals will make it clean again.Have you volunteered to clean up the local parks or state park in your area?Do you know people who dump their oil and bury it?Do you use a garbage disposal whit out regard to what you are putting in the water supply?Do you wash 3 items and call that a full load?We can hardly get upset over a few bags that will be contained in a landfill,but we all need to be aware of our water and no one is,so before you pat yourself on the back make your you are not guilty of worse things.Yes we all need to be responsiable in our daily lives I agree but it is a lifestyle not a "green movement".The lady who put the cantalope in the bag maybe using the bag later for garbage making two uses for it,she may not be able to buy regular bags,and in case you didn't know my city will not even pick up cardboard if its not bagged,that is because of health reasons for the garbage men who live and work at an honest job you would never do and have families just like everyone else and are entitled to be kept as free from all those nasty germs as is humanely possibe.Please lets all get a grip of reality here.I am for conservation(freedom from waste) not live in a cave and drink from the river thinking I am doing my part for humanity.

Answer 13

To be honest it's going to take alot for other people to understand the concept of recycling items or using re-usable bags. Alot people  just don't want to listen or understand the idea of uneccessary waste. The best thing you can do is try to educate people and tell them openly and honestly how you feel and hope that they listen. I have aquired an allotment for the very reason that I want to avoid waste and grow my own.