A Greener Tomorrow: Environmental Facts & Figures • Plastic bags were introduced over 25 years ago and society’s consumption rate is estimated well over 500,000,000,000 (that’s billion) annually or almost 1 million per minute. • The U. S. goes through 100 billion or more plastic shopping bags annually according to the Wall Street Journal. To produce these bags, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required. • Plastic bags accumulate and litter the landfills and landscape and will persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years.

Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photo degrade which means they break down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways.

• The energy needed to manufacture and transport disposable bags uses more and more resources and creates global warming emissions.

• Ireland introduced a plastic tax in 2002 and consumption was lowered by 90% in that year. The money raised from the tax was put into a “green fund” to further benefit the environment.

• San Francisco is banning plastic bags and hopes to be a model for other cities in the United States.

• Many large retailers are charging customers for plastic bags or are not offering them at all.

• Plastic bags are often mistaken for food and over 100,000 sea turtles and other marine animal die each year.

• Paper bags come from tree pulp and in 1999, 14 million trees were cut down to produce 10 million shopping bags used by Americans in that year alone.

• The paper or plastic dilemma is about equal in pros and cons. While convenient, they both gobble up natural resources and cause significant pollution.

• It takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper. But recycling rates of either type of bag is very low. The Wall Street Journal reports only 10-15% of paper bags and 1-3% of plastic bags are recycled.