The impact of plastic bags on the environment is enormous. The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are being used each year worldwide. Approximately 100,000 sea turtles and other marine animals die every year because they mistake the bags for food or get strangled in them.  The amount of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean is twice the size of the continental United States. It takes approximately 400 years, or more, for a bag to biodegrade. Plastic litter ends up in our water and breaks into toxic microplastics that end up in the flesh of fish that people eat. Animals accidentally eat plastic bags and choke, or their stomachs get lined with bags so they cannot eat.  The Centers for Disease Control designate many of the toxic substances found in plastic as known human carcinogens. As plastics decompose, they release hazardous, cancer-causing chemicals into our oceans and therefore to us.