Action Alert

Ingles Markets: Leading Western NC in Plastic Pollution. Demand Change Now!

Ingles Markets is our hometown grocery store chain. They are also one of the largest sources of plastic pollution in Western North Carolina due to their unwillingness to stop offering single-use plastic bags at the checkout counter.

Ingles Markets is the largest grocery store chain in Western North Carolina, and its headquarters are located in Black Mountain in Buncombe County — where residents use an estimated 132 million plastic shopping bags every year. Fewer than 1 in 10 plastic bags are recycled, according to the EPA. That means, each year, tens of millions of Ingles single-use plastic shopping bags are either being incinerated, clogging up our landfills, or as litter along our highways or in local rivers, streams, and forests.

Grocery stores, like Ingles, continue to use single-use plastic bags because they are cheaper for them. Unfortunately, they are not cheaper for us. 

The average lifespan of a single-use plastic bag is only 12 minutes. But they last for thousands of years in our environment, breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces called micro or nanoplastics. These tiny plastic particles end up in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. It’s estimated that we all ingest a credit card’s worth of plastic each week. Studies have confirmed the presence of plastics in various human tissues and bodily fluids, including blood, brain, lungs, colon, liver, placenta, breast milk, and carotid arteries, and a growing body of science shows that these plastics and the additives used to make them can be harmful or toxic to both wildlife and people.

The impact of plastics on human health is becoming increasingly clear. Microplastics can penetrate cellular structures, disrupting energy production and promoting inflammation. They also interfere with hormonal functions, impacting brain communication, immune responses, and organ function. The consequences are severe, linking plastic pollution to a range of health issues, including infertility, premature births, various cancers, and even neurodegenerative diseases. Research has shown that plastics in arterial plaques could increase the risk of severe cardiovascular events by up to 4.5 times within a three-year period. We’re still learning about the effects of plastics on the human body, but diseases related to plastic exposure already cost approximately 1% of the US GDP annually.

Plastics also are a significant contributor to climate change. In 2019, the production and incineration of plastic added the equivalent of 189 five-hundred-megawatt coal power plants worth of emissions into the atmosphere. By 2050, emissions are expected to increase to 615 coal power plants. Single-use plastics like shopping bags and styrofoam takeout containers account for more than 40% of all plastic production.

Ingles is chasing short-term profits and leaving us with the consequences: more medical bills, worsening health, and a warmer planet. 

Tell Ingles to Go Plastic Free. Email them today.