Reusable Bags vs. Paper or Plastic Bags

 

Using reusable grocery bags is simple!!!

Just ONE cloth bag, during the course of its long and prosperous lifetime, will eliminate the need for more than 1,000 plastic bags! So, just think how many trees and resources you'll save by utilizing just one bag, let alone a four-pack of them. Using reusable bags is a way to move toward utilizing sustainable products. While any reusable cloth bag will help stop the unnecessary waste of disposable grocery bags, utilizing tote bags made from 100% ORGANIC cotton, a renewable resource, is best. We estimate it will take 4 - 6 bags for a "normal" shopping trip. And although there is a cost involved versus "FREE" plastic bags, we believe it is worth it. Please consider making the switch from plastic to a reusable bag. Even if you don't make the switch with our bags, please make the switch.

It's easy to "BYOB". Keep a few cloth grocery bags in your car and a few by the front door. Don't be caught carrying an anti-earth friendly plastic or paper bag! It's a fashion don't in this day! Instead, grab a super cute, reusable, organic tote to show everyone around you that you have the sweetest mother-earth friendly attitude! It feels good doing something good for the environment while looking good at the same time! 

Why we need to reduce our use of PLASTIC BAGS:

The billions of plastic bags we use every year ARE harming the environment.
Take a look at these facts, courtesy of EarthResource.org on the environmental impact of plastic bags...

~Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.

~According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.

~According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion.)

~Most plastic bags are made from polyethylene, which is made from crude oil and natural gas, nonrenewable resources. The US alone uses about 12 million barrels of oil every year just to keep up with the demand for plastic bags (current annual demand tops out at about 100 billion bags).

~Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photo degrade-breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.

~Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.

~Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year!

~Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation.

~Four out of five grocery bags in the US are now plastic.

~The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store.

~Plastic bags are light and hard to contain. Because of their light weight, plastic bags fly easily in wind, float along readily in the currents of rivers and oceans, get tangled up in trees, fences, poles, and so forth, and block the drainage.

~Plastic bags are made from a non-renewable natural resource: petroleum. Consequently, the manufacturing of plastic bags contributes to the diminishing availability of our natural resources and the damage to the environment from the extraction of petroleum.

Still, according to the American Plastics Council, producing a plastic bag uses about 30% less energy than making a paper bag...

 

 

 

 

 

Why we need to reduce our use of PAPER BAGS:

It seems like paper bags would be the favored option, right? Read on...

~The US will cut down 14 million trees each year to satisfy our demand for paper grocery bags.

~2000 plastic bags weigh 30 pounds while 2000 paper bags weigh 280 pounds. So it requires a lot more fossil fuel to transport paper.

~In the landfill, paper bags generate 70 percent more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.

~It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag.

~Research from the year 2000 shows 20% of paper bags were recycled, while 1% percent of plastic bags were recycled. Quite frankly, both of these numbers stink.

~Current research demonstrates that paper in today's landfills does not degrade or break down at a substantially faster rate than plastic does. In fact, a lack of water, light, oxygen, and other elements that are necessary for the degradation process inhibit complete degradability.

Statistics from www.epa.gov