Plastic and Paper Bag Facts

Bag Facts

124 billion plastic bags are consumed in the United States each year.
Over 1 trillion plastic bags are used each year in throughout the world.
These numbers are growing exponentially every year. (China, with 1.2 billion people uses about 2.9 billion plastic bags every day!)
The Wall Street Journal has estimated that the number of plastic bags that are used annually in the US equals over 12 million barrels as well as producing "significant amounts of greenhouse gases."
It takes about 1000 years for a plastic bag to break down. (Plastic bags do not biogegrade, they photodegrade--breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating the soil, waterways and oceans and entering the animal food chain, when ingested by wild life.

Plastic bags cost retailers an estimated $4 billion a year.
It is estimated that approximately 53% of plastic bags are distributed into circulation via supermarkets and grocery stores.
It is estimated that over 30% of plastic bags used in the US come from the fast food/take-out food industry.
10% of all solid waste produced int he United States is plastic. (Of that, half is from plastic bags and plastic film.)
The Great Garbage Patch in the Pacific ocean contains a significant percentage of plastic, from plastic shopping bags.
Paper shopping bags use up valuable natural resources (paper pulp from trees,) create a large volume of pollutants in the production process, take up large amounts of space in and fills and are not as strong as reusable bags.

It has been reported by the Sierra Club that if every New York resident reduced their consumption of plastic bags by just 1 per year, it would reduce waste by 5 million lbs. and save $250,000 in disposal costs.

The Sierra Club has also reported that reusing a bag meant for just one use has a big impact. A sturdy, reusable bag needs only be used 11 times to have a lower environmental impact than using 11 disposable plastic bags.

Researchers say that by reducing a person's plastic bag consumption by 1 less per day, we are having a significant impact on the number of plastic bags in circulation.

International experience shows that the use of plastic bags can be substantially reduced in a very short period of time. Introduction of alternative reusable bags has shown to be an effective means by which to reduce consumption of plastic bags.
This strategy has been most effective when combined with legislative pressure for supermarkets and non grocery distributors of plastic bags to impose a levy on customers who choose to use plastic bags instead of reusable bags.
Begin to change our thinking around convenience versus sustaining our environment and our world, and make conscious decisions to re-use (along with recycling and reducing) on a daily basis.

Take the next step to be a part of the solution!
Begin using a reusable bag for ALLshopping trips, including take-out food!