Eco friendly shopping bags are your weapon against the fastest growing environmental disruptor.
Did you know that on average, 1 million plastic bags are "consumed" per minute? A family that uses plastic bags at the grocery store takes home about 60 bags per month. Switching to eco friendly shopping bags will have an impact on that number. To support the US consumption of plastic single-use bags, over 12 million barrels of oil are needed. I never even thought of oil consumption in relation to plastic bags before! Target Stores alone purchase 1.8 billion bags per year. I can't even begin to imagine what Walmart's number look like but I would bet double that number would be in the ballpark. EFFECT So what effect do these plastic bags have on the environment? For one, it takes up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to disintegrate. Did you know that over 100,000 aquatic animals die each year from mistakenly ingesting plastic bags? How about this scary fact - off the coast of California is a floating plastic "island." This island is twice the size of Texas and is made up of 7 billion pounds of floating plastic debris. Can you even get a mental picture of this? SOLUTIONS OR NOT So perhaps you are thinking, recycling is the solution to this problem. Unfortunately this is not an area that is suitable for recycling. It costs about $4,000 to recycle one ton of these plastic bags which can then be sold for about $30. Who would spend the money to do that? Further, the reality is only about 3% of plastic bags are even returned for recycling purposes. Perhaps those cheap reusable bags from Walmart and the like are the solution? Let's think about that. Do you want to use a Walmart bag when you go shopping for shoes? Will that Walmart bag stand up to years of usage? Probable not on both accounts. Ok, what if you use bio-degradable bags? Well, there are a few drawbacks. One is, that recyclers don't sort out which bags are which so they are mixed in with the non-bio-degradable bags. Another is the fact that it still takes as much natural resources to make the bio-bag as it does the regular bag so there is no savings there. Finally, the bag is loaded with chemicals that it will release into the ground as it decomposes. ALTERNATIVE So what do you really want to use? I recommend sturdy visually pleasing eco bags. Use bags that are not branded to a particular store so that you will not feel uncomfortable when shopping in a competitor store. I also recommend an eco bag that is patterned or dark in color to hide stains and dirt. Look for eco materials that are washable as well. Bags made from eco friendly materials such as hemp and bamboo will provide the most eco friendly shopping bags.
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