Plastic Bags

Statistics about Plastic Shopping Bags

The Greening Committee will be holding a plastic bags recycling event at the Temple on May 11th. More on that to come. But for information on why this is an important issue, Janet Robertson has compiled this information sheet.

From the website: www.reusablebags.com where there is a cool counter showing the number of bags consumed so far this year. It’s surprising how fast the counter moves!

How many plastic bags are out there?

Every year the people of the world use 500,000,000,000 (500 billion) bags. That is nearly 1 million per minute! Of all those bags, 4/5 (or 400,000,000,000) are not recycled. If they were put end to end, those 400,000,000,000 bags would go around the earth 63 times.

In the U.S., we use 100 billion bags and it takes 12 million barrels of oil to make them. With the oil it takes to make 14 bags, you can drive a car 1 mile. The average American family accumulated 60 plastic bags after only 4 trips to the grocery store. Other stores like Walmart and Home Depot use the same kinds of bags.

Why are plastic shopping bags so bad?

1. Very few are recycled. They end up polluting our environment, making an unsightly mess and endangering wildlife.

2. They do not biodegrade. Each bag can last up to 1000 years.

3. They endanger animal species. More than 100,000 marine animals die each year when they mistake the plastic bags for food and eat them.

Is this a problem in other parts of the world?

YES. Windblown bags in Africa are trapped in the brush. People have begun trying to harvest this trash and use the bags to weave hats and other items. It is estimated that one group of people are harvesting 30,000 plastic bags each month that have been caught in the brush. Taiwan has banned plastic shopping bags in its country.

Ireland was using about 1.2 billion bags each year, which is about 316 per person. So they started to tax plastic bags (called it the PlasTax). If you want a bag in Ireland when you are shopping, the store clerk adds 15 cents to your order. This tax has reduced the use of plastic bags by 90%!

Is paper better than plastic?

YES and NO

Yes, because paper is biodegradable and will eventually break down.

NO, because it actually take more oil to fuel all the processes needed to make a paper bag than a plastic one. Also, paper is made from wood pulp, which means trees have to be cut down to make paper bags. Trees are very important for cleaning the air of pollutants like carbon and for producing oxygen.

What’s the answer to this problem?

1. Recycle the bags you have or find. Plastic shopping bags can be turned into milk jugs, decking materials and other products.

2. Take reusable bags with you shopping. Keep them in the car so they are always handy and say “no” to more plastic shopping bags.