It seems lately that more and more people are becoming concerned with our environment and how to preserve it. Yet, we are constantly destroying our planet with the simplest of things. One of the most harmful and destructive things on this planet are plastic bags. One single plastic grocery bag can take up to 500 years to degrade! We are quickly destroying our oceans with these useless bags. For every square mile of the ocean, there are an estimated 46,000 pieces of plastic floating through the ocean and harming sea animals. The North Pacific Trash Jar, a place in the pacific ocean made up of plastic bags and more trash, is now the size of Texas! Animals are constantly getting stuck in plastic bags or eating them and getting sick. It takes 12 million gallons of oil a year to make plastic bags. Yet the United States alone goes through 100 Million plastic shopping bags a year(The Wall Street Journal). One trillion bags world wide(Earth Policy Institute) are used per year. Not only are we using a lot of them, but we are spending a lot of money of the bags as well. The United States spends an average of $4 billion a year on plastic bags. 

Recently California passed a law imposing statewide ban on plastic bags and a 10 cent charge for paper bags. I suggest that Publix (and any other retail stores) start charging a minimum of 10 cents for every plastic bag given. This would persuade consumers to purchase reusable bags instead of paying 10 cents per bag, which seems low, but really does add up. Publix could then promote the use of their own reusable bags to a greater extent. Publix then would make more money on their reusable bags. This could greatly reduce waste on our planet. Also, for those who don't mind paying, Publix would be making more money. Furthermore it is great publicity for Publix and would gather more eco-friendly shoppers to Publix. It seems like a win win situation. 

It is so easy to save our earth from any further destruction. This solution could amount a great deal of change for our earth. Please, share this with everyone you can so that we can finally make a change for the good of our planet. Use reusable bags and never use plastic! You will be helping the planet without lifting a finger.