The Observer, February 8, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 16
Global Scorning: Minimize your footprint on the Earth
Everyone has his or her own unique footprint. Whether it is a trail of footprints on the beach or a footprint from an accidental step in the mud, a footprint is distinctive to the step taken. Illustrated by these footprints are choices and actions, including the choice to consider or disregard the environment. As recently announced, one major company has decided to minimize its footprint on the Earth: Whole Foods Market (WFM).
Whole Foods is known as a health food store with organic and alternatively produced foods and products. It may already be obvious that Whole Foods is concerned with the status of our environment through their locally and organically grown produce, but by Earth Day 2008, Whole Foods will initiate a program called "Bring Your Own Bag, Save Your Own Planet." The BYOB program will eliminate the use of disposable plastic bags.
According to the Whole Foods website, the company estimates that starting from Earth Day to the end of the year, the BYOB program will keep 100 million disposable plastic bags from polluting our planet. Ecospace.cc has calculated that it takes 430,000 gallons of crude oil to produce that amount of plastic. To encourage the BYOB program, WFM will provide refunds of five cents for customers who use reusable bags. WFM will also sell reusable bags, including a bag made out of recycled plastic bottles, for 99 cents.
WFM is clearly watching over its footprint. The company's footprint will no longer be so pronounced, since a disposable plastic bag can take more than a thousand years to break down in a landfill. Additionally, the company is allowing and encouraging its customers to control their footprints as well. Ecospace.cc refers to one of Australia's biggest hardware chains, Bunnings, as an example of the BYOB program. Bunnings started a 10-cent charity charge on their disposable plastic bags. Within the first year, the store was able to prevent the use of 21 million plastic bags. The Aussie store's success is encouraging for WFM, especially considering the grand effect that WFM's 264 stores found all over the country could have.
Fellow students and faculty, be sure to empty your backpacks, briefcases and attachés for your weekly trip to Whole Foods or the grocery store of your choice. A BYOB program may not be the most convenient lifestyle change, but wasn't it the convenience of plastic products, coal as an energy source, and deforestation that got us into this mess in the first place?
