Burt, one of our sea turtle captains, stops the field boat to fish plastic out of the water near feeding leatherbacks.
Today Sobeys became the first national grocery chain in Canada to remove plastic bags from all of its stores.
Accidentally ingesting plastic is a threat to the survival of endangered sea turtles, like the leatherbacks, loggerheads, greens and Kemp’s ridleys we study here in Canada.
And as handy as a plastic bag may be, I can never balance the environmental cost of it. But that is easy for me because I work in conservation. I know intimately the risk plastic poses. I have felt that sick, cold flood my body when I watched a plastic bag pulled out of a dead sea turtle. I’ve listened to stories from our sea turtle colleagues who have done the same. (Check out this story from Newfoundland.) And I’ve thought hard about the balance between what is convenient for us and what is fair for the species with which we share our planet.
It is easy for me to cheer Sobeys eliminating plastic bags—but it isn’t as easy for a lot of other people whose experiences and lives are different from mine. That means this is a risky move that will alienate some customers. And Sobeys chose to do it anyway. This change, Sobeys said, will remove 225 million plastic grocery bags from circulation each year. 225 million. Each year.
This type of leadership is a big deal for species like sea turtles and it feels rare. I hope other companies follow. Soon.
Thanks, Sobeys.
