Paper or Plastic...

One of these days I may get into grinding my own grains to make my own bread, using only my bike for transportation, composting food scraps in a worm bin (NoImpactMan did!), and using no electricity (he did that too, for a year, amongst many other things...). But for now, I feel like I can help out Mother Earth a little here and there by cutting down on wasteful grocery bags!

I read a series of articles on msnbc this morning about the environmental effects of each of these choices, and there are some good arguments either way. Last fall I was so excited to find some reusable, foldable, lightweight polyester bags at envirosax that I bought a pack of them and gave them as Christmas presents this year (Jenny? Megan? y'all using them?). Did I mention they're even waterproof, and cute? I've tried to be vigilant in keeping one in my car all the time. They hold about twice the amount a plastic bag would, and I've only encountered one grocery store employee who seemed put out having to fill it (it was at Walmart in West Memphis, if that's a surprise). You even get the choice of a 10 cent discount on your total or wooden nickels to donate to local charities at Wild Oats when you bring your own bag in.

The envirosax website listed some facts about plastic bags:

-Approx. 380 billion plastic bags are used in the United States every year.

-Approx. 100 billion of the 380 billion are plastic shopping bags.

-An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.

-Only 1 to 2% of plastic bags in the USA end up getting recycled.

-Plastic bags create pollution and kill wildlife in the USA every day of the year.

-It is estimated that 500 billion plastic bags are used and discarded worldwide every year.

-1 million plastic bags are used and discarded worldwide every minute of the day.

-Single use plastic bags made of HDPE remain in the environment for up to approx. 1,000 years.

-Over 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles worldwide are killed by plastic rubbish every year.

So Save the Whales (side note: this dolphin did!), birds, seals, turtles, and humans! See what little steps can make a big impact on our city, state, country, earth, and health. There, I've done my good deed of the day. :)