Stop the Madness

I am not one to use this as a platform for my opinion but on this issue I believe that everyone needs to do their part. I started using recyclable bags over a year ago. For Christmas I almost gave them out as gifts but Chris made fun of me. Get ready for this year because I want nothing in return for Christmas except proof that everyone I know is using recyclable bags for ALL of their simple shopping. Target, Walgreens, Grocery, to carry their lunches, take their dry cleaning...etc. THESE ARE WHAT I USE AND ARE ONLY 99 CENTS OR $1.49 AT TARGET AND ARE SO CUTE!

I started using them for many reasons. I have begun to notice how much waste we create just by living our day to day life. From junk mail to unnecessary food packaging it is key to trim down your excessive lifestyle and recycle as much as possible. We now know that global warming does exist and we need to do everything we can to change the future for our children. We also need to take responsibility for the negative impact we have on the planet and innocent creatures. I also am including sad but true information about what a simple plastic bag does to our planet

• Data released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency shows that somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year


• Less than 1% of bags are recycled. It cost more to recycle a bag than to produce a new one


• Bags find their way into the sea via drains and sewage pipes


• Plastic bags have been found floating north of the Arctic Circle near Spitzbergen, and as far south as the Falkland Islands


• Plastic bags account for over 10 percent of the debris washed up on the U.S. coastline


• Plastic bags photo degrade:Over time they break down into smaller, more toxic petro-polymers which eventually contaminate soils and waterways


• Nearly 200 different species of sea life including whales, dolphins, seals and turtles die due to plastic bags

SO WHAT DO WE DO?

• If we use a cloth bag, we can save 6 bags a week, that's 24 bags a month, 288 bags a year,
  22,176 bags in an average life time


• If just 1 out of 5 people in our country did this we would save 1,330,560,000,000 bags over our life time


• China has banned free plastic bags, Ireland taxes theirs and has reduced consumption by 90%, Israel, Canada, western India, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan, and Singapore have also banned or are moving toward banning the plastic bag


• On March 27th 2007, San Francisco becomes first U.S. city to ban plastic bags

Please do you part and use your recyclable bags!!!! xoxo c&a