I read this article this morning and thought I wuold share it. Please pay special note to the paragraph regarding plastic "scandal" bags. We have a terrible habit here in Jamaica of getting a bag for everything and separate bags within bags upon bags, etc. Just think of the difference we could make by asking for one bag vs. six bags to pack our grocery items or better yet, carrying a reusable bag.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/science/04/12/plastiki.kiernan.plastic/index.ht ml?hpt=C1

That was a worthwhile reading.
Let me tell you about my city and our environmental program.

In my city of Toronto and surroundings, we are encouraged to use reusable hard plastic bags for our grocery, we still have the option to buy a plastic grocery bag for 5-cents but it is a program that has really caught on, and has proven to be very successful.

It is also mandatory for us to adapted to the Two Bag Standard for garbage, and we recycle our waste by separating our recyclable materials in blue boxes, or green bins. This is a program that is working well for our environment and this part of the world, we are proud of it.

We should try to leave the earth much better place than we found it.

Our last trip down we brought a few cloth grocery bags. Used them whenever we bought something to carry home and left the bags with friends when we left. Hopefully they are being put to good use.

The use of scandal bags is a scandal no matter how much people profess they are used to line wastepaper baskets and do other useful things with them. They blow through the streets and on the beaches. You can see them stuck to the trees and fences which kind of makes some places look like a garbage dump. When they get into the water, sea turtles often eat them and end up dying.

Biodegradable bags are available, here is one product, there are more.

http://www.biobagusa.com/

Does anyone know if any of these contribute any harmful substances after breakdown?

This is a huge thing in the UK at the moment. Supermarkets now charge for plastic bags and give you points on loyalty cards for re using bags. So many people now take their own it's really working.I now have several hemp bags which I take everywhere I will shop.
Plastic bags are so bad for both the environment and wildlife,they must be reduced. I am always amazed at how many are used in Jamaica. My Jamaican mother-in-law wraps everything in about 3 which drives me crazy.What a waste.

What can be done? My Jamaican mother-in-law BURNS all her plastic and styrofoam garbage in her back yard, even though she walks right by a garbage collection bin on the the lane everyday! Very frustrating !

We are the most bathed and cleansed people on the planet.

Nasty is not tolerated.

The acceptance of being nasty outside our property and personal boundaries is a glitch in our understanding that begs attention. I'm sure we do not intend to hurt each other? Do we? We do care? Don't we?

Billboards that fade and block the beauty are messages that quickly fade into the background. Unless the practices that create poisons in or air, soil and water are transformed into ones in synch with the natural cycles, the dumping will continue.

Unless the theories of sustainable development are put into practice by everyone, we will experience hot, dry, respiratory and other conditions, reuction of the quality of living, general anxiety and etc etc.

In most places I start a compost heap, it is dismantled for the strangest reasons. Where I have planted trees, many have been neglected or cut. My investment in photovoltaics has been mocked as a waste of time.

The simple trials of utilising plastic and other containers as spaces to germinate seeds have been interrupted or once, burned in a huge bonfire.

It is certainly easier to utilise the Blue Caribbean sky and the Deep Blue Caribbean Sea as as garbage disposal units.

That is MAD.

But shhhh, it's not convenient to discuss. Let someone else deal with it.

Have you thought of saying something to your mother-in-law in a respectful way? She is following old customs and probably needs to understand why a different way is better. I would also outlaw styrofoam but that's a separate issue.

Yes,"2 dj". Both my husband and I have tried differant ways, over the years, but old customs die hard, even in young people.