I woke up this morning thinking about plastic.

Again.

I have developed a minor obsession with plastic. It helps that plastic is literally everywhere, all the time. There are many opportunities to think about it.

I have recently been getting emails from my environmental sources that have been touting the benefits of plastic bag bans. And yesterday, as I went for a walk through the neighborhood, I followed behind a man carrying his groceries home in a plastic bag.

I followed him for awhile, walking the same route, and thinking (again) about plastic. Specifically, plastic bags.

Plastic bags are one of the most common sources of plastic pollution. I mean, I don’t really have to even say anything about them, right? We all know. We all know now that plastic bags are a problem.

I don’t think I’ve taken a plastic bag at a grocery store in years. I can’t remember the last time I accepted one. I keep reusable bags in my car. I bring a bag when I walk. It doesn’t cause me any trouble or hardship. It seems like this is really a low-hanging fruit. Cutting out plastic bags.

Many states and cities have already banned them successfully.

Here are some facts about plastic bags, from publicinterestnetwork.org.

Click to access US-Single-Use-Plastics-Coastal_1_0.pdf

1. “The U.S. uses over 280 million plastic bags
   every day on average. We use these plastic
   bags for a few minutes and then they pollute
   our communities and environment for decades.”
2. “Plastic bags are not readily recyclable and
   can jam up recycling equipment, hurting
   the overall recycling system.”
3. “Plastic bag bans work. Just four years after
   Seattle banned plastic bags, Seattle homes
   threw out 50% fewer plastic bags. In 2017,
   after hundreds of local governments and
   the state of California banned single-use
   bags, 72% fewer plastic bags were found
   during beach cleanups, compared with
   2010.”

Let’s get these plastic bags out of here!!!!!!!!!!!

Environmentamerica.org has a calculator for how effective a plastic bag ban would be if instituted in Nashville, TN.

(Calculator: https://environmentamerica.org/center/resources/plastic-bag-bans-work/)

Over 200 million bags kept off of Earth a year, just from a ban in Nashville.

The other persuasive point here is that we would also save over 1 million barrels of oil by banning plastic here in Nashville. At a time where we want to reduce our energy consumption and especially of fossil fuels as much as possible, that could be some really welcome savings.

It seems to me that we need this action as soon as possible, and this is an easy step. Most of our plastic usage is just based on convenience. With a little more foresight and planning most of our single-use plastics can be eliminated, and money and energy can be saved.

Thinking about it from an efficiency perspective helps motivate me to action as well. Generating less waste and consuming less waste means that we don’t use as much energy on production and removal. Less water, less oil, less electricity, less cleanup cost. And anywhere where we can save energy and effort, that reduces costs elsewhere, and that energy and labor can be utilized somewhere else.

This is something that is in my mind when I think about mowing lawns. Where are we wasting energy? Where could we better utilize human time and resources?

I see wide tracts of land that are mowed that are not really being utilized for anything. (I say not used for anything but perhaps there is a reason why they keep them clear and I just don’t know about it. I admit I am not a land use expert.) It costs energy and labor to keep that mowed, while not serving much of a role (that I can see). It seems to me that if it were allowed to grow freely, it would be a carbon sink, and it would also not require energy use of mowing, of watering, and would not need any human labor either.

What if our lawn mowers were also gardeners? What if they cultivated instead of cut?

I know I’ve strayed a little off topic here, but this was in my mind as I watched the mowing crews cut a large swath of grass around a small strip mall near my house. Nobody is walking or playing in that grass. So what if it was a garden instead? Or a patch of wildflowers or grass, which would require less effort than a garden? We are already spending time and energy to cut it. Why not cultivate it instead? It seems that that would be a better use of the land and cost less resources over time.

In many ways, we’ve fallen out of sync with nature — swept up by the momentum of our industrial and societal engines. But there are plenty of chances to restore balance. With a little imagination and effort, we can make meaningful changes. A simple plastic bag ban looks like one easy place to start.