A New Shopping Idea Is in the Bag

A newfangled theme park built in 1957 by a cartoonist as a playground for his money-making mouse featured a plastic House of the Future. Sponsored by the Monsanto Chemical Company, the house narrator boasted that “plastic materials for more than 50 uses [had] moved in to stay.”

Walt Disney had no idea how prophetic those words would be. Today we’re still recovering from the explosion of plastics into post-war North America. In the 1950s new processes such as forming, moulding, casting, and extrusion introduced myriad colourful and cheap objects into our lives…forever.

The war against plastic bags is now worldwide. Countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe all have aggressive programs to eliminate the use of plastic bags. North America is falling behind in the fight.

Fad Bags

Sure, almost every store in Canada has caught on to the reusable shopping bag fad. And it doesn’t hurt that the bags pull double duty: they advertise the company’s logo and support the store’s eco-efforts.

But there’s one element of the fight that almost everyone has overlooked. Back in 1957, when that promising plastic house was opened to the public, the first plastic bags and wraps were developed to keep food fresh. North Americans soon got into the habit of plastic-bagging the produce they brought home from the store. We still do it today.

Glad Bags

Now a Canadian company has invented a six-in-one shopping bag system that is an ideal alternative for eco-conscious consumers. In a handy waist-clipped pouch, the Moukisac contains one full-sized grocery bag, four drawstring mesh Moukinets, and one small mesh bag, all perfect for when you shop for organic produce. Handmade in Canada, these stylish pouches are available in a variety of materials and colours from moukisac.com.

Thanks to these reusable bags, eco-consciousness is handy at your hip when you go shopping.

Plastic by the Number

• Each year Canadians use approximately 6 billion polyethylene plastic bags.
• In 2002 factories worldwide churned out 4 to 5 trillion plastic bags.
• It takes from 400 to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to decompose.

Plastic Bag Dangers

• Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales, and other marine mammals die every year after eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.
• Storm drains plugged with discarded plastic bags can cause deadly floods such as those in the city of Mumbai, India, which banned plastic bags in 2005 for this very reason.
• The polyethylene used to make plastic bags is known to cause cancer, disrupt hormone function, and could cause inflammation and heart disease.