How to decrease your plastic bag use

Description

Americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags yearly.

Made out of low density polyethylene, they are among the products that are most commonly used by consumers due to their light weight, availability, low cost and huge variety of types.

However, apart from these advantages for use, plastic bags are utterly dangerous for the environment. Their production process consume large amounts of non-renewable petrolium. They are not biodegradable, ie. they can not be  degrade by biological activity, such as enzymatic action, altering the chemical structure of the material.

Morover, only 1-2 percent of plastic bags in USA are recycled, the rest end up in landfills polluting the soil and water, where needless to say they pose a serious danger for wild animals and birds.

Do you need all those plastic?

Most people think that plastic bags are an indispensible part in our daily lives. We grab them everywhere, in malls, grocery, bookstores… For the last one year, I started resisting plastic bag offers in all such occasions and drastically reduced my use.

Original URL

http://ecofuture.net/osquee/2009/10/06/dont-use-plastic-bags/

http://ecofuture.net/osquee/2009/10/06/dont-use-plastic-bags/