Ten Reason to Use Reusable Bags

Yesterday, I did a little shopping at Stop & Shop and spent $15 on General Mills, Scott Naturals and Clorox Green Works products (all were on sale). At the checkout, I added five reusable bags and received them for FREE! I choose the Earth Day bag since this promotion was for Earth Day.

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I have been trying to remember to bring reusable bags when I shop and I thought having a few more wouldn’t hurt. Here are my ten reasons why we should consider using reusable bags:

1. The bags hold MUCH more than the plastic bags.
2. The reusable bags are MUCH sturdier. The plastic ones are always ripping.
3. I get 5 cents per bag off my grocery bill each time I use them.
4. An estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide EACH year. That comes out to over one million per minute. That is a lot of trash!
5. Over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year. Where do they all go?
6. The cost to retailers annually for plastic bags is $4 billion. This relates to higher prices on groceries and other products.
7. Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating plastic bags that they mistake for food. I just love sea turtles!
8. Plastic bags are one of the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups. Sad.
9. Ireland was able, through a successful plastic bag consumption tax, to reduce the use of plastic bags from 316 per person per year to just around 31 per person per year. This has saved approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil (oil is used in plastics manufacturing)
10. I don’t want the Earth filled with plastic bag trash for my children and grandchildren.