Reusable Bags Make a Big Splash on the Oceans

Posted on Oct 30, 2011 in Sustainable Living & Sustainable Lifestyle by Matthew Speer 3 Comments

The Pacific Ocean is home to gorgeous island hideaways that attract droves of vacationers in search of peace, serenity or perhaps a romantic adventure. It is also home to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, estimated to be larger than Texas. It is a collection of plastic trash trapped by ocean currents and is truly a testament for waste, providing yet another reason to embrace a sustainable lifestyle. A significant contributor to the trash found on beaches, oceans and even animal’s stomachs are the plastic grocery bags millions of Americans use every day. The “paper or plastic” question that you face at the local store has a hidden answer, “none of the above,” when reusable bags are by your side.

Reusable Bags Just Make Sense!

Luckily over the past decade the concept of reusable bags have become somewhat popular, department stores, grocery stores and similar have begun to offer these bags to customers for a nominal fee or in some instances even free. These bags are often quite durable, I have some in my car’s trunk that are 5 years old and have been used time and time again. The hardest part about using reusable bags is that you have to remember to take them with you to the store, while that seems easy even I forget sometimes which is why I leave some in my car.

With an estimated 380 billion plastic bags used in the United States each year, 38% of the worldwide consumption, Americans can make the largest and fastest impact. Keeping in mind the oil based resources that go into making many of today’s plastics, using reusable shopping bags can reduce our oil consumption. In recent years China placed a ban on thin plastic bags which ended up saving 1.6 million tons of oil. Health is also something to consider, toxins found in the ink and other chemicals used during production could contaminate your food or other items you consume.

Go Green With Reusable Shopping Bags

A simple and effective way to lessen your impact on the environment is to be a proud user of reusable bags. Using this green product is an eco-friendly solution that will save animals, reduce oil consumption, lessen exposure to toxins and clean up our oceans. If all we have to do is remember to take them with us to the store there isn’t really an excuse not to use those handy dandy reusable shopping bags.