Shopping for clothes isn't as much as a habit for me as shopping for food is. Like most live/work city dwellers, at least five days out of the week I'm at my local grocery store for something or another. That habit can lead to a massive collection of plastic shopping bags that really aren't reusable for much. And besides cluttering up my garbage can and kitchen storage space, here are a few facts about what those seemingly convenient plastic bags do to our environment.- Each year the United States consumes 30 billion plastic and 10 billion paper grocery bags, requiring 14 million trees and 12 million barrels of oil.
- More than 46,000 pieces of plastic contaminate each square mile of our oceans.
- Only 1% of plastic bags are recycled annually.
- Over 100,000 marine animals die every year from plastic entanglement.
The best way to cut back on waste is by purchasing your own reusable shopping bags. I admit, I was a bit reluctant about buying them at first, but trust me! Use them once and you'll never go back to plastic sacks again! They hold way more groceries than the normal bags and are much more sturdy. You can also carry them on your shoulder as opposed to trying to tote a bunch of the smaller plastic bags in your hands. Most of your local grocers have reusable bags on sale at the register, but here are a few I found online to get you started.
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