Hello readers, this is Gail Page of Concord, retired social worker, and life-long seeker of nature's well-being.  For the last many decades, Hollywood has produced a ton of sci-fi movies about alien invasions. The movie makers seem to understand that we love to be scared of the unknown as long as it all comes out okay in the end. This type of entertainment came to mind as I pondered this new series of articles about the earth getting filled with discarded remnants of our consumer lives. It is being taken over by multiplying refuse.

You’ve likely seen the pictures of the mounds of food wrappings, toys, bags, eating utensils, blowup beach floats, etc. Sometimes these things are gathered in a dump site, sometimes compacted into enormous cubes of discarded plastic in a warehouse somewhere. The point is, the plastic we use remains for millenia, eventually breaking down into microscopic pieces that we and all living creatures ingest or breathe in.

Along with this are the numberless other products we buy, use or not, and then discard. Think clothing, dryer sheets, cosmetics, and electronics among others. Although my greatest emphasis is on plastic, these other things also fill the land and oceans with their long-lasting presence.

Here’s a small start for grocery shopping: I talk to people about bringing their own bags to tote home the groceries and frequently the response is, “Yes, I have them in the car but I always forget to bring them into the store.” Having done that myself, now I have a sturdy plastic bag folded up with an elastic around it in my purse. I hasten to say I think someone gave me something in it originally, I didn’t take it for a purchase. So now I at least have that one handy at the register and need fewer store bags. I’ve reused that bag too many times to count. In fact, all grocery stores have paper bags to use, if you ask, instead of plastic.

So I am writing this column not because I have all the answers but because I feel strongly that a change of direction is needed. I have no doubt that readers will have many ideas of their own to share on how to do this. I invite you to send them to me via this newspaper and they will be included in future articles. Send them to features@cmonitor.com. Look for future articles on these topics in the Sunday Monitor in the “Your Life” section, every other week.

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