STOP USING PLASTIC BAGS!!!

It is CRAZY how many plastic bags we can use without even giving it a second thought. Stores will double wrap an item in a plastic bag then throw it with other items in yet another bag! Most stores default to using plastic bags even though they know as well as anyone that paper bags are better for the environment. It is therefore up to YOU AND ME to take action. This is an easy one, too! Over the past year I accumulated about 6 cloth bags for grocery shopping. Some were given away from local businesses and others were just a buck or two. I keep them in my car and use them instead of plastic bags.

Cloth bags can hold a lot, are durable, are in-style (saving the environment is a cool), and above all they are much better for the Earth than plastic bags!

Here are some (scary) stats on plastic bags:

-- It takes 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose.

-- 1,460 plastic bags are used each year by an average U.S. family. 12 million Barrels of oil are used to make the plastic bags each year for just U.S. consumption.

-- Less than 1% of all plastic bags get recycled in the U.S. 88.5 billion plastic bags were consumed in the U.S. last year alone.

-- A million plastic bags are used every minute, worldwide, and the number is rising.

-- Roughly 60–80% of all marine debris, and 90% of floating debris is plastic.Plastic resin polymers are so durable that it can take hundreds of years for plastics to break down at sea, and some may never truly biodegrade in the marine environment.

-- Each year, the State of California spends approximately $25 million to landfill discarded plastic bags.The City of San Francisco alone, estimates dealing with plastic bag litter costs about 17 cents per bag, totaling $8.5 million annually.As the annual consumption in LA County is an estimated 6 billion plastic bags.

-- Plastic bags (which resemble jellyfish or sponges) are mistaken for food or prey by seabirds, marine mammals, fish, and sea turtles.More then 1 million seabirds, 100,000 marine mammals, and countless fish die annually through ingestion of and entanglement in marine debris, including plastic bags.

-- WHAT CAN YOU DO? Say no to plastic! Bring your own reusable bag!