Paper
or plastic? No Thanks!

What are the costs of
things we use everyday that we can
control? Bring bags with you to the
store and never wonder about your
answer. Help a cause and your community
with these environmentally friendly
recyclable shopping bags. Recyclable
shopping bags last for years. Well over
a billion one time use plastic
bags are used for purchases in stores
each day. Here are some of the actual
costs paid by our environment and
communities for the convenience of
single-use plastic bags.
- The production of plastic for grocery
bags uses petroleum and many times
natural gas as well, which both increase
the countries dependency on foreign
supplies. Prospecting and drilling for
these resources contributes to the
destruction of fragile habitats and
ecosystems around the world - including
our own country.
- The chemical ingredients needed to
make plastic produces toxic pollution
during the manufacturing process.
- The energy needed to manufacture and
deliver disposable bags uses resources
and creates global warming emissions.
- Annual cost to US retailers alone is
estimated at $4 billion which increases
the price of everything we buy.
- Disposal of plastic bags creates an
estimated 8 billion pounds of plastic
bags, wraps and sacks enter the waste
stream every year in the US alone,
putting an unnecessary burden on
landfill space and further causing air
pollution if incinerated.
- Plastic bags can take up to 1,000
years to decompose. They often end up as
litter breaking down into tiny bits,
contaminating our soil and water.
- After plastic bags breakdown, the
small plastic particles can pose threats
to marine life and contaminate the food
chain. Japanese researchers reported
that plastic debris acts like a sponge
for toxic chemicals, soaking up a
million fold greater concentration of
such deadly chemical compounds such as
PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of the
notorious insecticide DDT), than the
surrounding seawater. These turn into
even more toxic food for marine animals.
- Hundreds of thousands marine mammals
die every year from eating discarded
plastic bags which they mistake as food.
Turtles see the bags as jellyfish, their
primary food source. Plastic bags that
are eaten choke animals or block their
intestines, leading to an agonizing
death. Many cows, goats and other
animals suffer a similar fate to marine
life when they accidentally ingest
plastic bags while foraging for food.
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