A staggering amount of oil is used in the production of the ubiquitous plastic grocery bag. For your 10 minutes of personal convenience, plastic bags create a major environmental impact on the energy and oil crisis. Banning plastic bags is not the way to go, due to a large industry sustaining millions with steady jobs. Instead, reducing and recycling are the first steps in transforming this single bridge of oil consumption.
The average American family accumulates 60 “free” plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store. This over use of plastic bags, according to Neil Seidman of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, “...is destroying our rivers and oceans.” But the issue is a double-edged sword. Banning plastic bags also leads to the overuse of their paper bag counterparts. Paper uses even greater amounts of energy to make and recycle, as well as trees.
This site's goal is to raise an awareness of the issue while also asking its visitors to make a pledge in reducing their own consumption of plastic bags.
