Plastic Bags
Plastic is a very new material, so we don't know exactly how long it takes to decompose. However, researchers say it may take 500-1,000 years! Wow! That is a long time. It takes this long because microbes don't recognize polyethylene--the major component of plastic bags--as food, breakdown rates by this means in landfills is virtually nil.
Plastic is a very new material, so we don't know exactly how long it takes to decompose. However, researchers say it may take 500-1,000 years! Wow! That is a long time. It takes this long because microbes don't recognize polyethylene--the major component of plastic bags--as food, breakdown rates by this means in landfills is virtually nil. - Shoppers worldwide are using 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags per year. This translates to about a million bags every minute across the globe.
- Every year, Americans throw away some 100 billion plastic bags.
- The energy needed to manufacture and transport disposable bags eats up more resources and creates global warming emissions.
- The production of plastic bags requires petroleum and often natural gas, both non-renewable resources that increase our dependency on foreign suppliers.
A river in China, choking on plastic
- When it rains, all the plastic bags that people toss into the trash are washed down the stormdrains, which lead directly to our rivers and oceans
To make all the bags we use each year, it takes 14 million trees for paper!
*Remember you can always take your plastic bags back to the grocery store and they will recycle them.
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