Sabine Eigmina
In the late August, the Latvian capital Riga hosted the international contemporary circus and street arts festival “Re Rīga.” Within its framework, I saw Cie Non Nova show “Windy afternoon.” The main hero of the show – a common cellophane bag and a ventilator, which gives life to a plastic and the ability to move. This show raises the topic of plastic bag life.
According to Earth Policy Institute statistics, nearly two million plastic bags are used every minute. Each year, 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worlwide. The amount of petroleum used to make a plastic bag would drive a car about 115 meters. It would takes only 14 plastic bags to drive one mile! These digits are impressively high.
I personally try to avoid plastic packaging every day despite the fact that they follow me like a shadow. Have you ever traced your daily visit to the supermarket? Walking through the supermarket shelves me watching hundreds of items, packed in plastic bags. Various liquids in plastic bottles are observing me. Even healthy fruit are waiting for me to put them in a plastic bag and will bear with me to my home. At checkout my products are rewieved again and placed in a plastic bag. Our opportunity to choose to receive the product in bulk to the plastic bag is small. Unwittingly we become “115 meters” co-passengers.
But what can we do to consciously reduce the road distance?
Unlike the plastic bag, we have the ability to think.
Think strategically.
Think three steps ahead.
Think about our children.
Tell that an apple is still an apple, even if it is not put in a plastic bag.
Changes starts within ourselves. Change your shopping habits.
Sabine Eigmina
The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the author, and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of ALDA and the European Union.
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