In case you were wondering and haven't heard, we are experiencing a plastic pollution epidemic. We are constantly hearing about plastic bags littering bodies of water and sea creatures suffering as a result of our carelessness. We all have a pile of plastic bags building up somewhere in our house. We have so many that we don't even know what to do with them other than use them for garbage bags, but even then we're still left with excess. Many people don’t know how to get rid of them - or that they can be recycled!

When you consider how many plastic bags are actually being used, it's mind blowing. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks, and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year. Each bag is used for typically 12 minutes, then takes 450 years to break down. While breaking down, the bags photo-degrade, which means they just break down into smaller and smaller pieces, contaminating soil and waterways and eventually getting ingested by animals. Then, many of us eat those animals.  Subsequently, we get all those particulates back into our system. In retrospect, who knows how long they have been within us, and/or the harmful effects they have on us? Alas, not much has been researched on that; so, not much is known about the harm yet. 

The worst part is, according to Waste Management, while 1,500 plastic bags are brought home on average each year, only 1 percent of them are recycled. ONE PERCENT!  If we can't at least handle the small responsibility of recycling these bags, we don't deserve the convenience that comes with them.

Plastic bags don't come from nowhere. Most of the problem lies in the fact that major supermarkets provide them. According to conservingnow.com, just four trips to the supermarket accumulates up to 60 plastic bags. This represents the average family's harmful impact on the environment. 

Supermarkets may have the most control over this particular situation.

Very often, after a long day of work, customers grocery shop and without really thinking much about it, they pile groceries one after another into the automatically-offered plastic bags.

People don't necessarily mean harm by doing this, but they tend to take advantage of the convenience since plastic bags are always available at everyone's disposal. Grocery stores could directly establish the change we need to see. They could discourage plastic bag use by charging 10 cents per bag like many already do (kudos to them), or require that customers bring their own reusable bags from home. At many grocery stores, you will even find tote bags by the registers for the very low price of a dollar or two (and then donate the revenue to environmental organizations!). While tote bags and bringing your own bags from home are suitable solutions to the major problem at hand, the solutions aren’t utilized often enough.

If grocery stores were to completely ban plastic bags, it would not only be an eye-opener to the environmental objective and consequence behind it.

Customers could choose between making an environmentally- and socially-responsible decision to purchase or bring a reusable bag, or paying out-of-pocket for a plastic one. Some may become tired of the recurring cost of plastic bags and then hopefully realize that a reusable bag is more cost-efficient over time. These habits would feed into plastic-free routines that gradually become second-nature.

Numerous cities in a total of 15 states have already laid out single-use plastic bag bans. This is a big step, but we have many more to take!

We need this priceless change that would make an enormously positive difference for our planet, our home. 

Let us come together to fight for more eco-friendly supermarkets!