Reusable shopping bags!

After doing some grocery store shopping, I realized that more and more grocery stores are passing out reusable shopping bags. (Image from Keetsa website)

This post relates to one of my previous posts on the three R’s: Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle.

So what’s benefit of using reusable grocery bags? Well according to this article called “Why use reusable grocery bags” it says:

•Reusable bags save trees
•Reusable bags save water
•Reusable bags save gas and oil
•Reusable bags help air pollution
•Reusable bags help our oceans
•Reusable bags help our sea creatures
•Reusable bags save 700+ bags over the span of their lifetime!
•Reusable bags help our families!

Now I bet some of you are wondering why I should switch from using plastic grocery bags? Well the article called “Why use reusable grocery bags” answers that question as follows:

•A Plastic bag takes 450 years to biodegrade. Imagine 10 billion of them!

•The production of Paper bags causes 70% more pollution than Plastic.

•When Plastic “photo degrades” it ends up in our oceans and like plankton, which is then consumed by fish. Fish eat it, and it winds up on your dinner table. YUCK!!!

•The recipe for making paper bags starts with 1 part pulp, 400 parts WATER. What a waste of water!

•The recycling of plastic emits heavy metals into the air causing extreme air pollution

•An average person will use over 350 bags in a single year!

•In New York City, one less grocery bag per person would reduce waste by five million pounds and save $250,000 in disposal costs!

•In 1999 more than 14 million trees were cut down to produce 10 billion paper bags that were used by Americans that year!

I just got my first reusable wine bag this weekend from Kroger, a grocery store in Blacksburg, VA. It was free with any purchase of wine. So be on the look out for great deals and help save the planet; we only have one.