This is important because we are consuming more and more virtually useless petroleum products. Single use plastic shopping bags are made out of oil, they are very toxic; we use them for 10 minutes and they take hundreds, even thousands of years to decompose.

When they are recycled, (only about 1%, but that's something) most of them are turned into low quality items such as doormats that end up in a landfill anyways. Also, a lot of plastic carrier bags never make it to the landfill. They end up killing a defenseless animal in the Pacific Ocean.

In 50 years from now, it is estimated we will be out of oil, if not sooner. We need to stop being greedy humans and take care of where we live, planet Earth. Ban the plastic shopping bags in New Mexican grocery stores!

Also view the blog for this petition here.