Plastic bags are so cheap to produce, they are sturdy, bountiful, effortless to carry and store; that they have captured at least 80 percent of the grocery and convenience store market since they were introduced a quarter century ago, according to the Arlington, Virginia-based American Plastics Council. "The numbers are absolutely staggering," said Vincent Cobb, an entrepreneur in Chicago, Illinois, who recently launched the Web site http://Reusablebags.com to educate the public about what he terms the "true costs" associated with the spread of "free" bags. He sells reusable bags as a viable solution. According to Cobb's estimate gathered from statistics released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2001 on U.S. plastic bag, sack, and wrap consumption, somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Of those, millions end up in the litter stream outside of landfill, estimates range from less than one to three percent of the bags. Candy wrappers, chewing gum, cigarette butts, and other plastic goods including millions of the plastic bags end up as litter. Once in the environment, it takes months to hundreds of years for plastic based items to decompose. As they decompose, tiny toxic bits leach into soils, lakes, rivers, and the oceans, said Cobb. Do you think measures should be taken to ban the use of plastic bags to help preserve our environment?
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WE MUST ALL UNDERSTAND THAT OUR PLANET IS COMING TO AN END AND THAT PEOPLE DONT WANT TO CHANGE THE WAY THEY LIVE. EVERYTIME I TURN ON THE T.V. THERES A STORY ABOUT HOW THIS IS CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING, AND HOW THAT IS KILLING OUR ENVIORMENT. BUT WE HAVE TO REALIZE THAT WE AS HUMANS HAVE GOTTEN TO BIG FOR OUR SHOES. SOME OF THE SOLUTIONS WE HAVE FOR THESE PROBLEMS CAUSE POLUTION TO. WE ARE ALWAYS IN A LOSE LOSE SITUATION BECAUSE WE ARE OVER POPULATED.
SOLAWOP
That may be true but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try and improve the environment.
Even taking things that you have around your house and using them to carry your groceries can help.
We're overpopulated yes but we can't go back in time and change that all we can do is make the situation as good as possible.
There are a few cities across the nation that have banned plastic bags. San Francisco has banned them and people who need a bag have to pay for them. Granted that San Fran is MUCH more liberal than most cities across the nation, so this would be more difficult to implement in almost any other city. Other cities like Carrboro, NC have significantly decreased use of plastic bags since they have a "Zero Waste" policy (one of the few cities across the nation with that resolution).
Seeing how much good has come from these acts makes me wholeheartedly support the banning of plastic bags. Not only that, but the production of the bags is a further pollutant that many people do not think about.