American Beauty

We went grocery shopping today and refused to use any plastic bags. We even avoided the plastic bags for produce and bulk items, and we bought a lot of produce. Incidentally, I was surprised at how much cheaper it was to buy a lot of produce than it is to buy mostly pre-made/pre-packaged food. I expected it to be more expensive. I'm not really sure why. *shrug*

Back to the subject at hand!
Ceasing to use plastic bags could be the single easiest and most important thing that everyone can do to improve the world as a whole. About 1 million plastic bags are used every minute. Each of those bags can take 1000 years to degrade, and, even then, they break down into toxic pollutants. Where do these plastic bags go? Well, I don't know about you, but I've seen them in quite a few trees and on quite a few roadsides. Also, every square mile of ocean has 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it. It actually outnumbers phytoplankton...The Pacific Ocean is home to what's known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," which is an estimated 3 million ton mass of trash swirling in the ocean. So, that's fun...

AND, though recycling plastic bags is environmentally better than throwing them away or dropping them in the street, it's actually not economically profitable.

MOREOVER, they require a lot of nonrenewable resources, like petroleum, to produce and a lot of public money to clean-up. California spends about 25 million annually to send them to landfill and another 8.5 million collecting them from the streets. Think of how many teachers they could be paying instead.

SO, what's the solution? Reusable bags. They're inexpensive, and they actually carry more items per bag than plastic bags. Plastic bag companies claim they harbor bacteria, but this problem can be solved by throwing them in the washing machine on occasion like you would any other cloth product you own. Plus, a lot of stores give discounts for using them.

Mesh produce bags online
reusable bags that fit in your purse and are reasonably priced

A funny but serious lawsuit about plastic bags