When asked by a clerk at your local grocery store whether you Shopping Bag prefer plastic or paper for your purchases, be eco-friendly and say “neither.”
Plastic bags can end up as litter and pollute the environment, killing thousands of marine animals each year who mistake them for food. Placards that are buried in landfills can take up to 1,000 year to degrade. In the process they become smaller and smaller toxic particles, which can contaminate soil or water. Plastic Shopping Bag also use millions of gallons of oil, which could be used to heat and fuel.
Is Paper Better Than Shopping Bag Plastic?
Many people believe paper bags are a better option than plastic bags. However, they also have their environmental issues. According to the American Forest and Paper Association in 1999, the United States used 10 billion paper grocery bags. This adds up and requires a lot more water and chemicals to make the paper.
Reusable bags are a better option
If you don’t want to use plastic bags or paper bags, how can you get groceries home? Many environmentalists believe that high-quality, reusable shopping bag are the best option. They can be reused multiple times and do not harm the environment. A wide range of high-quality, reusable bags can be found online or in most grocery stores, departmental stores and food cooperatives.
Experts estimate that between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used each year worldwide. This is more than one million per minute.
These facts are important to show the environmental and consumer value of reusable bags. Photodegradation is the process by which plastic bags are broken down into smaller, more toxic particles. These harmful particles can contaminate soil and water and then end up in the food chain when they are accidentally eaten.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 380 million plastic bags are used each year in the United States. Plastic shopping bag account for approximately 100 billion of those. This adds up to $4 billion annually in retail costs.
According to different estimates, Taiwan uses 20 billion plastic bags per year (900 per individual), Japan consumes 300billion Shopping Bag per year (300 per individual), and Australia uses 6.9 billion plastic bag per annum (326 per per person).
Every year, hundreds of thousands of marine mammals, including dolphins, whales, and sea turtles, die from eating plastic bags that they mistakenly believe are food.
The popularity of plastic bags in Africa has led to a Shopping Bag cottage industry. These bags are used to make hats, bags, or other products by the local people. According to the BBC, one group regularly collects 30,000 bags per month.
Plastic bags have become litter in Antarctica and other remote regions. David Barnes, a British Antarctic Survey marine scientist, says that plastic Shopping Bag are now almost ubiquitous in Antarctica. They were once rare in the 1980s and 1990s.
