Aaron Sanneman
CES 210
Assignment Three April 29, 2010
My name is Aaron Sanneman and I am majoring in Conservation. The agency that I
signed up with is Waste Less Wisconsin. Waste Less Wisconsin is mostly made up of
volunteers. There are only a few part time people that work at Waste Less Wisconsin. Waste
Less Wisconsin was put together by many governmental and non-governmental components.
Waste Less Wisconsin is an offshoot of a larger group AROW (Associated Recyclers of
Wisconsin). AROW used to be a group that was called BeSMART (Save Money and Reduce
Trash), which was another group that was focused on recycling in Wisconsin. The mission
statement of this agency is, “Its goal is to promote learning and leadership in waste reduction and
recycling to help participants make real-world changes that reduce waste, conserve resources and
prevent pollution” (web homepage).
The environmental issues that Waste Less Wisconsin deal with are reducing the amount
of trash that individuals produce and teaching individuals to re-use what they have to conserve
resources. The project that I decided to do, addresses the environmental issues of reducing the
amount of trash that individuals produce and teaching individuals to re-use what they have to
conserve resources.
The project that I decided to do was promote the use of reusable bags. The goal of my
project was to encourage people to reduce or eliminate the amount of plastic bags used when
they went shopping. The idea for this project came from my own conversion to reusable bags
about a year ago. I realized I saved about ten plastic bags a week by switching to reusable bags.
The biggest part of my project was persuading my family and several friends to start using
reusable bags-many of which I supplied from my own stash. For each person I threw out some
statitistics about plastic bags that I found on a website called Natural-Enviroment.com. There
was a certain statistic for each person. For example, I told my dad, “Approximately 60-100
million barrels of oil are required to make the world’s plastic bags each year.” Next I explained
how easy it is to use reusable bags and some other benefits such as there is more room in
reusable bags and they don’t have to worry about reusable bags breaking from excess weight. I
measured the results of this experiment by finding out how many plastic bags were saved per
week. I did this over a four-week period with two friends and my parents. We saved about 80
bags during that time period. I also talked to many neighbors in my apartment building and
neighborhood about using reusable bags. Additionally, I went to several local stores to see if
they had incentive programs for using reusable bags.
The effects that plastic bags have on the biosphere are pretty horrific. For example, 40%
of dead turtles from Moreton Bay, Queensland that were autopsied had plastic bags in their guts
(Planetark). Additionally, “Tens of thousands of whales, birds, seals and turtles are killed every
year from plastic bag litter” (Planetark). In short, plastic bags are devastating to wildlife. My
project helped to relieve some of the stress put on wildlife by making sure that 80 bags did not
get into the biosphere. Plastic bags are also detrimental to the lithosphere because 60-100
million barrels of oil have to be drilled every year to make them. Oil is already used so heavily
for such things as fuel that plastic bags are only taking away from a precious resource that is on
the verge of being depleted. My project helped the lithosphere by having a little less oil drilled
to make the bags. Plastic bags affect the hydrosphere by littering oceans and not disappearing.
According to Natural-Environment.com, “Most plastic bags take over 400 years to biodegrade.”
Again, my project helped with this problem by making sure that at least some plastic bags did
not make it to the ocean. Finally, the atmosphere is affected by the production of plastic bags.
The oil that is drilled to make plastic bags has to go through a manufacturing process that creates
air pollution. The manufacturing of bags adds tonnes of carbon emissions to the atmosphere
each year (Natural-Environment.com). In an indirect way my project may reduce global
warming in a small way by reducing the amount of carbon emissions put into the atmosphere.
My project and my agency have several impacts on the socio-cultural system. It is true
that persuading individuals to use reusable bags may take away jobs from the businesses that
manufacture plastic bags. However, new jobs can be created for the manufacturing of reusable
bags. The effect is that the manufacturing of reusable bags is sustainable since it does not rely
on a non-renewable resource (oil) to make them. Another impact is that this project can change
the products that businesses make because, “Consumer choice can play an important role in
persuading businesses to produce eco-friendly goods and services” (Cunningham, William P.
and Mary Ann Cunningham 533). The more people use “green” products such as reusable bags
the more companies will be forced to produce “green” products if they want to stay in business.
That gives people the power to make a change for the environment if they take the initiative to
push for the production of “green” products. Additionally, this project helps people to take
responsibility for the actions that they make. For example, when I asked my participants to
count how many plastic bags they did not use it helped them to realize how wasteful plastic bags
are. That in turn gives them some satisfaction in knowing that they are not contributing to that
waste. The effect of feeling good about something is that a person will want to tell other people
about it. The impacts were not just beneficial for the individuals who were using the reusable
bags, but also for the stores that they were using them in. Each plastic bag costs about one cent
for a store. Each person probably uses about six plastic bags per visit, which is about six cents
per person for every visit. Then that can be multiplied by 100 customers (using a conservative
number) and it costs a store about six dollars a day just for customers to use plastic bags. The
bottom line is that when customers use reusable bags it saves money for businesses. That could
possibly translate into savings for the customers with reduced prices.
My project had a connection to stores. Many of the stores that I went to encouraged
customers to buy and use reusable bags. However, Pick N’ Save was the most aggressive in
trying to get customers to use reusable bags. This is because they offer a five cent discount off
the customer’s total bill for every reusable bag that is used. My project also has a connection
with a governmental institution, the Environmental Protection Agency. One of their goals is to
reduce the amount of pollution that is produced in the United States. Again, my project
indirectly does that by reducing the amount of plastic bags produced.
In the end my reflection project has helped me understand the impact of my service
learning project. It helped to put into perspective all the different areas i.e. biosphere and
lithosphere that the project had an impact in. I realize that the project had a small impact, but it
could be the beginning of something larger if the people I had participate tell other people about
reusable bags. Also, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I helped the environment with just a
little bit of effort.
Works Cited
Plastic Bags: Minimizing the Damage. http://greencotton.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/plasticbags-minimizing-the-damage/
http://parsonspr.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/turtle-plastic-bag-photo1.jpg
Cunningham, William P. and Mary Ann Cunningham. Environmental Science: A Global
Concern. New York: McGraw, 2010.
“Effects on Wildlife.” PlanetArk. 2009. 25 Apr. 2010.
http://plasticbags.planetwork.org/about/wildlife.cfm
“Environmental Impact of Plastic Bags.” Natural-Environment.com. n.d. 26 Apr. 2010.
http://www.natural-environment.com/blog/2008/01/10/environmental-impact-ofplastic-bags/
“About Us.” Waste Less Wisconsin. n.d. 25 Apr. 2010.
<http://www.wastelesswisconsin.org/node/6>