Why it Isn't Plastic vs. Paper

The cons of Plastic Bags:

-Plastic bags last up to 1,000 years, either in litter, landfills, or oceans and rivers.

-Petroleum and natural gas and needed to produce plastic bags which causes pollution. The energy used to transport the bags eats up resources and creates global-warming emissions.

The petroleum in 14 plastic bags is enough to drive you 1 mile. (A lot considering the average American uses on average 500 plastic bags per year.)

-Hundreds of thousands of animals die every year from eating plastic bags mistaken for food.

The Cons of paper bags:

-It takes 60% more energy to make a paper bag as it does a plastic bags.

-The production of paper bags generates 70% more air pollutants and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.

-Although they are biodegradable, 80% of paper bags end up in landfills, where they do not biodegrade due to lack of oxygen. Thus, the landfill impact of paper bags in terms of weight, volume, and cost, is higher than the landfill impact of plastic bags, which are light and compact.

Solution: REUSABLE BAGS!

By bringing your own bag to the grocery store, you will be saving 22,000 plastic bags you would have used in a lifetime!

http://www.reusablebags.com/

http://www.envirosax.com/

http://www.factorydirectpromos.com/

Or you can get one at your local grocery store. (ex. Whole Foods, Safeway etc.)

Look at countries that have already banned plastic bags:

Germany, South Africa, Italy, Australia, India, Somalia, Botswana, Philippines, (coming soon) Uganda, Kenya, Japan,Turkey, Zanzibar, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Belgium, (Levy) South Korea, Singapore, Sweden, Bhutan, Malta China