Not the use of plastic bags (though that's a good question, too!) But rather, Nathan's incessant plastic bag blogging this week! Ah! But I had to, there is such a timely article in my local newspaper today! The title is "Sack The Plastic Bag"! And I thought I'd do a quick run down of some numbers they have in the article:1957 + The first year plastic bags were introduced in the United States for bread, fruit and vegetables.
Late 1960s + First plastic garbage bags appeared in US homes.
April 2007 + San Francisco is the first US city to ban plastic bags. Other cities considering a ban: Annapolis, MD; Austin, TX; Bakersfield, CA; Boston, MA; New Haven, CN; Phoenix, AZ; Portland, OR
100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion) plastic bags are thrown away by Americans each year
12 million barrels of oil are used to make and transport the bags used in the US each year
0.6% of bags are recycled
400-1000 years to break down; chemicals could remain even longer
4-5 trillion plastic bags are produced worldwide each year
100,000 marine animals die each year from plastic bag entanglement
Things you can do:
+ Keep reusable cloth bags in your car to be available when needed
+ Forgo using a plastic bag if your purchase is small and easy to carry
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