Plastic Bags

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Did you know that…?

The United States uses about 380,000,000 plastic bags per year.      

Hundreds of thousands of aquatic animals die by inaccurately eating plastic bags as food.

One in twelve objects recovered when cleaning the coastline are plastic bags.

Plastic bags are made of polyethylene.

It is estimated that 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are used everywhere in the world and sadly; millions end up as waste, and that is polluting the environment.

Have you ever thought about where plastic bags go? You should start. If you put them in the trash then they will go to a landfill or in an ocean. If they go in a landfill it will pollute the land. Some of the people who are reading this still don’t think they should reuse, recycle, and reduce. But, this fact should make you do the right things with plastic bags. Did you know that plastic bags are not eco-friendly? They also don’t decompose easily and when trash ends up in landfills, methane gas is discharged.  So it’s up to you… it’s ALL up to you. So you can think about this, and whenever you want to help our environment it’s only a plastic bag away.

The Pacific Ocean contains a watery landfill of plastic materials that is approximately 524,000 square miles. Scientists say these plastic materials enter the food chain and this can cause obesity, infertility and more harm. No one knows how long it takes for plastic to biodegrade; at best, we have been using plastic for just 144 years. It is estimated that for plastic to become biodegradable, it will take several hundred years.

Resources:

 http://www.cdnn.info/news/article/a071104.html

 http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/10/sack_the_plastic_shopping_bag/

 http://www.keweenawsustainability.org/

 http://www.greenfeet.net/newsletter/debate.shtml

 http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/myenvironment/home/householdwaste.php