I was walking Gracie along the shore and saw a shopping bag floating in the water. I fished it out - it's a pretty clean beach and always a bit of a shock to see the junk that washes up.
I noticed the syllabic lettering and gave the bag a closer look. It was from Iqaluit in the Far North, and proudly proclaimed "Friends of the Environment".
Iqaluit is over 4000 miles away. If it did indeed float all the way here, this is one sturdy bag. More likely it made part of its journey by land or air, but still it's a remarkably disturbing thing to find.
I will use this bag to collect seaweed for the garden. And I will do my best to re-use it, and re-use it, and re-use it until it is nothing but dust, and then I will bury the dust.
Good on you Heather. I was given some of these bags by my bank when they first came out and I have been using them and reusing them, but there is no sign of deteriorating so far. Are these bags going to be worse than plastic bags in the long run, who knows! - Hugs Nat
ReplyDeleteIt's like a message in a bottle! It traveled a long way and the recycle message was ironic. We like to collect seaweed too for our compost pile.
ReplyDeleteSharon
I enjoyed cruising through your blog this morning. I'm feeling lazy today and just playing online.
ReplyDeleteIronic indeed! and poetic too, in a way.
ReplyDeleteApparently these were called "bags for life"when they started being used in Britain, and I remember reading an anecdote about how the question "Do you want a bag for life?" at a supermarket cashdesk had amazed and unhinged a woman writer (I think it was Iris Murdoch, but I'm not sure).
Your bag came to the right person (after obviously leaving the wrong one!).