Nature’s Food Patch to Ban Plastic Bags for Good!

By Cheryl Rosselle

Nature’s Food Patch, your neighborhood Natural Market & Café, has decided to join the growing national and international movement to ban plastic bags.  This decision was made as a part of the store’s ongoing commitment to inspire people to wellness; both inside and out.  Reducing consumption of plastic bags while may not directly effect one’s health in such a way that choosing a healthy diet does, it still fits into a healthy lifestyle because over-consumption has led to environmental problems worldwide.

Established in 1987, “The Patch”, affectionately termed by the locals, is a community grocery store dedicated to offering a complete selection of quality organic and natural products.  They carry north Pinellas County's largest array of organic produce, bulk foods, herbs, vitamins, pet supplies, natural bodycare, books and videos. Their popular café serves up an abundant display of healthy cuisine, helping to make the store a friendly gathering place, known for its commitment to organic foods, quality natural products, community involvement and health education. 

Laurie Powers-Shamone has been the guiding light for Nature's Food Patch for nearly 2 decades. With lots of natural foods experience, she exemplifies the spirit of diversity and sustainable, conscious living that Nature's Food Patch embodies.  Voluntarily banning the plastic bag, and being one of the first store’s in the area to do so, is just another movement towards following that spirit.

More than 100 billion plastic bags are used each year in the United States, accounting for about 12 billion barrels of oil needed to produce those bags.  Those 100 billion bags will take an estimated 1,000 years to decompose, and they don’t biodegrade, they photo degrade.  This means it takes sunlight to break the bags down into tiny toxic bits that will eventually contaminate the soil and waterways.  Often times, sunlight will never even reach the bags because they are buried in ever growing landfills. 

What about recycling?  According to the Worldwatch Institute, less than 1% actually gets recycled.  The rest, if not waiting years in a landfill to decompose (with everything inside the bag waiting as well), are likely to be littering the earth; hanging from trees, clogging storm drains and threatening marine life.  Plastic bags are often mistaken for jellyfish or squid then eaten by turtles, sharks or even birds where they cause blockages and death.

San Francisco was the first US city to ban plastic bags at major supermarkets.  Oakland soon followed suit.  Other cities considering the ban are Boston, Baltimore, Annapolis, Portland, Seattle, Santa Monica, Santa Cruz and Steamboat Springs.  NJ is the first state considering the ban while several countries including Australia, Bangladesh, France, India, Italy, South Africa, Kenya and Taiwan have already done so.  The Republic of Ireland put a tax on plastic bags called the “plastax” in 2002.  This cut down the usage by 90%!

As Nature’s Food Patch approaches its 21^st Anniversary on February 22^nd, the 14,000 sq. ft. (soon to expand!) establishment has begun to implement a plan to return to the days where bringing your own shopping bag was the norm, not the exception.  In order to encourage this behavior, the Patch will donate 5¢ for every re-usable bag a customer utilizes for their groceries or café items to a local charitable organization.  Customers can help choose the charity by voting for their favorites at the Customer Service counter.

By Earth Day: April 22^nd, 2008, the Patch hopes to be rid of its dependence on plastic bags.  Paper bags will still be available, but as they have their own environmental issues, the real hope is that conscious consumers will be bringing their own re-usable bags.