Over the past six months, I have had to retrain myself.  Get of the car, grab my purse, enter the grocery store, oops...go back to the car, and grab my reusable bags. I have also had to learn HOW many bags to bring with me.
 
I now know that for larger grocery trips, I need to bring seven canvas bags. Besides the obvious environmental benefits, there are other perks for bringing my own bags. My canvas reusable bags are MUCH stronger that plastic bags, and I can put a ton of stuff in each one without worry of bag breakage. Also, some stores pay .05 for every bag that I bring in, and use. Trader Joes enters me into a contest every month to win a gift certificate.
 
If that's not incentive enough to bring your own bags in, here's the reality of plastic bags - and it's a scary one.
 
Plastic Bags Start Pollution Upon Production
  • The production of plastic bags requires petroleum and often natural gas, both non-renewable resources that increase our dependency on foreign suppliers. Additionally, prospecting and drilling for these resources contributes to the destruction of fragile habitats and ecosystems around the world.
  • The toxic chemical ingredients needed to make plastic produces pollution during the manufacturing process.
  • The energy needed to manufacture and transport disposable bags eats up more resources and creates global warming emissions.
Disposal and Litter Costs
  • Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food. Turtles think the bags are jellyfish, their primary food source. Once swallowed, plastic bags choke animals or block their intestines, leading to an agonizing death.
  • On land, many cows, goats and other animals suffer a similar fate to marine life when they accidentally ingest plastic bags while foraging for food.
  • In a landfill, plastic bags take up to 1,000 years to degrade. As litter, they breakdown into tiny bits, contaminating our soil and water.
  • When plastic bags breakdown, small plastic particles can pose threats to marine life and contaminate the food web. A 2001 paper by Japanese researchers reported that plastic debris acts like a sponge for toxic chemicals, soaking up a million fold greater concentration of such deadly compounds as PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of the notorious insecticide DDT), than the surrounding seawater. These turn into toxic gut bombs for marine animals which frequently mistake these bits for food.
  • Collection, hauling and disposal of plastic bag waste create an additional environmental impact. An estimated 8 billion pounds of plastic bags, wraps and sacks enter the waste stream every year in the US alone, putting an unnecessary burden on our diminishing landfill space and causing air pollution if incinerated.
If you're looking to add some more cool reusable shopping bags to your collection, check out these online stores. Not only do they sell some great bags, but they look much better than the ones you get in a big box stores. Look for the ones made in the USA, and some stores are offering sales/promos right now in honor of earth day.