When I first realized
there was another option to those annoying almost see through plastic things I
use to put my groceries in I felt relieved.
I didn’t think there was ever going to be another option besides
stashing bags in my kitchen closet. About five years ago I saw cloth reusable bags
at check outs. It was slow but all of a
sudden they were popping up everywhere so I bought a few. I felt like I was doing my part in helping to
stop plastic bags from ending up in landfills and blowing through the streets. It doesn’t matter what stores I go in anymore
but cashiers everywhere seem to mindlessly just put anything in them even when
I have one item. About 1 million plastic bags are used every
minute. Over one trillion are used every
year throughout the world. About 90% of
those are thrown away.
There
is an estimated 300 million bags alone that end up in the Atlantic Ocean. A lot of marine life mistake plastic bags as
food and die from the poisonous toxins the bags give off if they don’t choke
first. There is enough problems going on
in our oceans and plastic waste is one we can all help to lessen.
I think if we start reinforcing rules that other states
and countries have already started using we could really change what’s
happening to our world. In March of 2007
some stores started charging 5 cents per bag. Now if that doesn’t make you think twice about
bringing your own reusable bags then I don’t know what will. I know that many stores offer a discount if
you bring your own bags. I don’t think
putting a ban on plastic bags will solve this problem, but if we start getting
the facts out about how they affect the environment maybe people will slowly
switch to the reusable ones. Each
reusable bag can eliminate hundreds of bags each year if not thousands. If every person switched from plastic bags to
using reusable ones we could eliminate up to 300,000,000 pounds a year in our
landfills.
If we live to be 100
years old then our plastic bag waste we have taken on in our life time will
take another 900 years to decompose. I’ve decided to take the rest of the plastic
bags I had at home and recycle them at my local grocery store. Recently I’ve noticed how many people are
bringing their own reusable bags and leaving the plastic ones behind. I’ve also noticed how much bigger and better
the reusable ones are then when they first came out. They now make freezer bags for your cold food
and insulated ones for your hot foods. The
reusable bags are cheap and easy to use once you get in the habit of bringing
them with you. This is one small way we
can help the planet and the choice is yours.
The next time you’re at the grocery store even if you switch to one
reusable bag it will help a tremendous amount. This change isn’t going to happen overnight
but it can happen with barely any effort.
2 comments:
I agree Zach, I personally hate it when I'm walking in the woods and come across a plastic bag hanging in a tree that someone mindlessly threw out or just left for the wind to take. I feel like if people can't use paper bags or the reusable bags, they should at least reuse the plastic bags. They have so many practical applications, throwing them in the trash or out the car window is ridiculous.
I hate using or seeing them stupid plastic bags no matter where. I agree that we need to enforce the use of reusable bags. If we could only put a ban on plastic in general this world would be so much better off because plastic never breaks down. When I go to the store I try to use either paper or reuseable bags when ever I can. If evenyone does their own part on using reusable bags, we can make a difference. Ban the plastic.
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