Plastic bags

One of my goals for the year is to stop using plastic grocery bags. So far I have 2 reusable bags and am waiting on them to :"pay" for themselves. Each time I go to Meijer or Marsh, I get a 5 cent per bag credit. I paid 99 cents for one bag and got the other one free. So far, I have received 55 cents in credits. Once that's down to zero, I'll buy another bag. I think I have another free one coming in the mail too.

Each year in America, 14,000,000,000 plastic shopping bags are used. Of those, only 1% are recycled. It takes 12,000,000 barrels of oil to produce these bags. Some studies indicate that it could take a plastic bag 500 years to break down in a landfill, though that number has also been disputed. There are a lot more statistics about plastic bags that you can find on the Internet if you really want to learn more.


So, for now, I still do use a few plastic bags each time I go to the store. I recycle them or reuse them though. After I get enough reusable bags, I'll quit using plastic ones for good. And I'll feel a lot better about myself:).