Weekly Green Tip: The facts about reusable bags
Have you ever really thought about plastic shopping bags? According to http://www.chicobag.com, the average American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags per year. Some plastic bags are reused or recycled, but many end up blowing around or floating in the ocean. The world’s largest landfill can be found floating between Hawaii and San Francisco. Wind and sea currents carry marine debris from all over the world to what is now known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This “landfill” is estimated to be twice the size of Texas and contains thousands of pounds of our discarded trash, mostly plastics. Each year hundreds of thousands of sea birds and marine life, including sea turtles, die from digested plastics mistaken for food. What can you do to help? Find or buy a sturdy cloth bag (or one of those $1 bags sold in many stores) and start using it!
