I have a pet peeve. Its called plastic bags...especially the kind you get from the grocery store. Why are we still using them? And how come nobody informs the employees that if someone asks for no plastic bags, do not ask me if I want my eggs, greeting cards, meat...in a separate bag. Most of the time when I say "no thanks" the employee thinks I'm a little over the edge with recycling.
Have you ever heard of the "Eastern Garbage Patch"? This "patch" is really a trash mass that researchers estimate weigh roughly three million tons, covering almost two times the size of Texas. It floats between Hawaii and California. There is also a Western Garbage Patch between Japan and Hawaii. The hugh amount of trash in these areas are not piled up like garbage dumps; but massive amounts of debris float just below the surface...trillions of plastic particles and contaminants.
BYOB, "Bring Your Own Bag". It's so easy to obtain reusable bags, why are we still using plastic? You can purchase these bags for as low as .99 cents at your local grocery store. If you want to be fashionable, for $5.00 plus shipping you can get a really nice large reusable bag from icarebags.com and its recyclable!
1,400 plastic bags are used annually by the average American family.
I think one person at a time can make a difference.
Bird Photo: Pajarito Environmental Education Center
Hi Jenn....I hate them too but I can tell you why they are still being used....it's because they're cheap. My son works in grocery store and he has learned that they pay .01 for each plastic bag as opposed to .05 for each paper bag. They do also offer the reusable bags and we have some of those but my husband is the one who does the grocery shopping and many times he either forgets to bring the bags with him or he doesn't bring enough and we opt for paper in those instances because we use them to take our recyclables to the recycling center in. I don't much like the idea of paper bags either though because I love trees!! Janet
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