Contrary to popular belief, you really can still ask for paper bags at the grocery store checkout line! Even so, the words, "Paper or plastic?" have mostly faded from memory, as billions of little plastic bags get handed out each year. In fact, the United States uses about 100 billion plastic bags per year, with the average person using between 350 and 500. There's no denying that they may be convenient in the moment, but there's also no denying that there's a much better alternative for them -- and, no, we're not talking about paper bags. We're talking about bags that you can reuse over and over again. Here are just a few compelling reasons to ditch the plastic bags and join the reusable movement.
They Harm Wildlife
At this point, everyone should know this. But the fact is, in a landfill, plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to degrade. Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photo-degrade, breaking down into smaller toxic pieces usually ending up in our oceans causing dangerous bioaccumulation in the food chain. Plus, an estimated one million birds, 100,000 turtles, and countless other sea animals die each year from ingesting plastic. The animals confuse floating bags and plastic particles for edible sea life such as jellyfish and plankton.
Not just that, but birds and other animals can easily become trapped and unable to escape from plastic bags, eventually leading to strangulation and suffocation. Considering the fact that plastic bags are only used for an average of 25 minutes, is it really worth the risk to our wonderful world of animals and wildlife?
They're Ugly
The fact is, plastic and non-reusable grocery bags are some of the most commonly littered items on U.S. streets and coastlines. In fact, plastic bags make up more than 10% of washed-up debris that pollutes the U.S. coastline They're unavoidable, and they're just plain ugly. Making the decision to transition to reusable bags is making a decision to beautify the Earth. After all, the average reusable bag has a lifespan equal to that of more than 700 disposable plastic bags, which means that one person using reusable bags over their lifetime would remove more than 22,000 plastic bags from the environment.
They Don't Get Recycled
Finally, the sad fact is that the overwhelming majority of plastic grocery bags do not get recycled. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, which has been collecting plastic bag statistics for more than a decade, only roughly 2% of plastic bags are recycled in the United States.
Ultimately, understanding these benefits reusable wine totes in bulk and other reusable bags is the key to doing your part to keeping the Earth clean. For more information about wine totes in bulk, contact Holden Bags.
