The goal of this petition is to encourage large scale corporations (such as supermarkets) to replace their plastic bags with the more affordable reusable ones. Stores should replace plastic bags with reusable ones in order to benefit the environment. To begin, by switching to reusable bags it can help decrease pollution. The effects of plastic on the environment can be devastating. Plastic takes anywhere from 15 to 1,000 years to break down at a time. That’s 15-1,000 years of plastic pollution around our planet whether it be in landfill or our oceans. Only about 1% of plastic bags are recycled according to Waste Management Northwest. I’m addition to decreasing pollution by using reusable bags we can help protect wildlife. For instance more than 100,000 marine life deaths are a result of pollution according to the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). Because of all the recent deaths in marine life, biodiversity has also decreased. Without such biodiversity many societies would suffer because for some of them seafood is their only outlet of protein. Another reason why we should stop using plastic bags and replace them with reusable ones is because by doing so you help conserve energy. About 12 million barrels of oil is used to produce plastic bags in the United States every year according to Waste Management Northwest. Overall as one can see, plastic bags have many negative impacts on the environment which ultimately affects people everyday too. Reusable bags would help contribute to minimizing many environmental conflicts such as pollution that we face today.