Little-known Plastic Bag Facts

Submitted by M.P. Crawford

While perusing the Fall 2008 issue of "Chesupioc", the newsletter of ther Chespeake Audobon Society, I happened upon these share-worthy facts researched by Kathy Woods, a Wildlife Rehabilitator, regarding plastic bags and the impact upon OUR environment. Are you ready?

Four seemingly unlikely allies, Rwanda, China, Bangladesh and Ireland, have all banned free plastic bags at the grocery store. Plastic bags are manufactured from polyethylene- a thermoplastic derived from oil. Wishing to decrease their foreign oil dependency (what a great idea!), China expects to SAVE 37 million barrels of crude oil by adhering to the bag ban. Ireland now taxes the bags and therefore has reduced usage by 90%.

As we know, these bags find their way into every imaginable airspace, water space and landscape on OUR Earth. Two-hundred species of sea life have been victimized by either consuming, choking on, or becoming entangled in plastic bags carelessly discarded. Don't think that recycling gets rid of the problem: less than one percent of plastic bags are recycled, and the cost is enormous.

So, if you think that switching from paper or plastic and carrying cloth bags (preferably of the 100% organic derivative) isn't helping much, then consider this: according to a report from National Geographic, worldwide dependence on plastic bags is set at 500 billion to 1 trillion. In one lifetime, we could save over 25,000 bags! Now that's a fact to get choked up about.