Uhhh neither....I brought my own.....BAM!
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency...500 billion-1 trillion plastic bags are consumed yearly. Guess how many of these bags are actually recycled?
1%.
So if only 1% are being recycled, where the heck are the rest of them going (besides into my mom's kitchen drawer)?
- Ocean-fills-- a study from 1975 showed some 8 million pounds of plastic bags were put into the ocean yearly
- The sides of roads
- Littered around animals' homes
- Drains and sewage pipes
- Coastlines
- Murdering animals--be it suffocation, poisoning them with chemicals, etc.
- You can see more statistics and devastating photos by watching this powerpoint (passed on to us by two of our readers Lindsey and David.)
So the silver-lining solution: ditch the paper and plastic, and go cloth. This alteration in lifestyle is super easy and you can look semi-trending doing it.
Tons of sites
are offering the reusable bags now. Not to mention that you can pick
one up at the checkout at most grocery stores--they're an additional
$1-2 tops. Maybe you even have something lying around your house. Or
you can go the sentimental route--which is the path I chose to go. I
bought mine from the Woolys Grocery Store in Sydney while studying abroad in Australia and I just recently brought it out of storage in pursuit of green happiness.
# of plastic bags saved so far: 13
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I would use all things paper and avoid plastic at all costs. The Copenhagen has failed to reach any definitive agreement on the reduction of carbon emmissions and though the bigger nations have declared emission cuts of 20-30 percent but not a legal binding. Also plastic waste blocks sewage in many places thus making it difficult for most plumbing services to clear the blockage and lead to increased incovenience so avoid plastics completely.
Duke
Our family now brings our own shopping bags everytime we visit the grocery store.. some of the employees there think it is really neat and some still look at us as if we were crazy..
I love when I am at the grocery store (or any other store) and see people using reusable bags . . .and it is good that every store sells them now too.
The looks you get when you say paper please is priceless