Plastic bags are everywhere!
Wherever you’re shopping – at Market Basket, Target, or Walgreens – the clerk helpfully reaches to place your purchase in a plastic bag. This action is so automatic it has become a default setting we expect.
You don’t have to ask for the plastic bag – the clerk has already placed your item into the bag before you’ve even paid! If you don’t want the plastic bag – you need to opt out and quickly. It’s hard to believe that plastic bags were only introduced in grocery stores less than 50 years ago – 1977 was the first year they came to supermarkets.
How often have you come away from the store with a single soda bottle or snack in a plastic bag? We have quickly become accustomed to this luxury, and losing it feels like we’re losing a right.
Before the somewhat recent push for reusable bags and totes went mainstream, chances were you never thought about plastic bags or their impact on the environment. Now we’ve come to rely on plastic bags and consider it normal to be given one even if we only make a one item purchase.
But what are some of the facts and figures about plastic bags? What is the impact of all those plastic bags? What are the important things to know about plastic bags?
Read our infographic to find out more about plastic bags, and stay tuned to learn more about what you can do to reduce your plastic bag use in an easy, fun way.
For a close-up of our infographic, view it here, http://greensalem.com/blog/need-know-plastic-bags/.
Beth, a member of the SalemRecycles Committee, is an MS candidate at Salem State University in the Industrial-Organizational Psychology program. She is interested in sustainable business and development. You can often find her running at Forest River Park or checking out books about upcycling from the Salem Public Library.
