08 Aug EcoTip #15 – Bring Your Bag – It’s a Beautiful Thing

I’m glad to see Austin City Council moving closer to banning plastic bags. I have a collection of reusable bags in a variety of sizes, colors and fabrics – my favorite is a reversible oil cloth bag a friend brought me from Mexico – it’s yellow with red strawberries. Getting in the habit – and it needs to be a habit – of bringing your own bags for shopping can be fun and maybe even . . . fashionable? Yeah, it’s cool to bring your bag. Speaking of cool – those thermal bags are great for keeping frozen food from thawing in this summer heat.

It’s hard to imagine a world without plastic bags. We use them to carry groceries home from the store, to store foods in the refrigerator, and as garbage bags. They threaten wildlife and fill up landfills. According to the Austin American Statesman’s August 4 article, “Austinites use 263 million plastic bags a year. They cost the city and taxpayers about $850,000 a year to clean up as litter and put in landfills, according to city estimates.”

The production of plastic bags from fossil fuel, contributes to the pollution that causes global warming and toxins that threaten human health. Plastic bags litter highways, hang from trees, clog stormwater systems and threaten marine life. 

About 50 percent of all marine litter is some form of plastic. The United Nations Environment program reports that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean.  More than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year from eating or getting entangled in plastic.

Help reduce the use of plastic bags by collecting some fun, crazy, beautiful and useful reusable bags and make your fashion statement next time go shopping. With that statement, you’ll also let others know you care about the environment.  Who knows, it might catch on.