This petition’s purpose is to outlaw the use of single-use plastic bags in the United States. Obviously this petition won’t do it alone, but public support is absolutely necessary. Plastic bags (of the single-use variety, of course) are -- simply put -- killing the Earth. They look like jellyfish in the ocean, and while we may be able to tell the difference, jellyfish-eating sea creatures cannot. They ingest them and die. It isn’t only sea creatures that are affected by our consumption of single-use plastics. Birds mistake shredded plastic bags as food and eat them. 100,000 marine animals are killed every year! One in every three leatherback sea turtles likely have plastic in their stomachs. And this isn’t even beginning to touch on the process of making the bags. 

Americans use about 100 billion plastic bags per year, which requires over ten million barrels of oil to manufacture. Do you know how much 100 billion is? For reference, one million seconds is eleven days. One billion seconds is about thirty-one years. 100 billion? 100 billion seconds is 3,170 years. That is how many plastic bags we use in America alone. And for what? Fifteen minutes of convenience? Plastic bags take over five hundred years to decompose, which they don’t even fully do. They just degrade into microplastics that further pollute the environment. Back to the manufacturing, for every five plastic bags, 1 kg of CO2 is released into the atmosphere during creation. And CO2 is part of the climate crisis making our planet hotter. 

The pros of invoking a plastic bag ban would include greatly reduced carbon emissions from America, one of the largest offenders. This would set a great example for other countries. There are virtually no cons to banning single-use plastic bags in our country. Over 200 cities in America have already banned plastic bags, and the rest of the country should follow.

Please sign this petition to show support for our planet. We are running out of time to save the Earth!