A Thousand Pictures: Environment

Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Reusable Bags For Shopping

I posted a couple of weeks ago how I bought the green reusable bags to take
the the grocery store and I just wanted to give an update. I bought 6 and yesterday
I went to the store and bought a ton of stuff (I usually go once a week to the store) and
if they would of used the plastic bags they could of easily used about 12 to 15 bags. I had
that much stuff. I honestly thought I was going to have to buy a few more of the green
bags but they were able to fit everything into 4 bags!!! I was amazed by that!! I really like
my new bags and really encourage everyone to buy a couple and try them out!

Plastic Bag Addiction

The Numbers…Believe It or Not

Introduced just over 25 years ago, the ugly truth about our plastic bag addiction is that society's consumption rate is now estimated at well over 500,000,000,000 (that's 500 billion) plastic bags annually, or almost 1 million per minute.

Single-use bags made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are the main culprit. Once brought into existence to tote your purchases, they'll accumulate and persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years.

Australians alone consume about 6.9 billion plastic bags each year, that's 326 per person. According to Australia's Department of Environment, an estimated 49,600,000 annually end up as litter.

In 2001, Ireland used 1.2 billion disposable plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.

Four out of five grocery bags in the US are now plastic.

Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food.

In a dramatic move to stem a tide of 60,000 metric tons of plastic bag and plastic utensil waste per year, Taiwan banned both last year.

According to the BBC, only 1 in 200 plastic bags in the UK are recycled.

According to the WSJ Target, the second-largest retailer in the U.S., purchases 1.8 billion bags a year.

As part of Clean Up Australia Day, in one day nearly 500,000 plastic bags were collected. Unfortunately, each year in Australia an estimated 50,000,000 plastic bags end up as litter.

The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store.

Each high quality reusable bag you use has the potential to eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime. The bag will pay for itself if your grocery store offers a $.05 or $.10 credit per bag for bringing your own bags.

Windblown plastic bags are so prevalent in Africa that a cottage industry has sprung up harvesting bags and using them to weave hats, and even bags. According to the BBC one group harvests 30,000 per month.

Click here to see our line of reusable shopping bags

Monday, May 19, 2008

Green Shopping Bags to Save Earth

I finally got the green shopping bags to take to the grocery store so I won't have to use the
plastic bags!! Yea!! I am helping save the earth!! I know...I should of done this a long time ago but
at least I finally got around to doing it!! If you haven't bought your green bags yet, don't feel bad but just pick them up next time are at the store! They are really sturdy and can fit a lot in them! I love them! I had a lot of grocery's and I bought 6 and it all fit.