BYOB

• Green Tip of the Week
  BYOB: Bring Your Own Bags!
  
  · Bring them to the grocery store, or any store for that matter!
  · Invest in a few durable cloth bags, or make them yourself.
  · Reuse your plastic bags as trash can liners, pet waste bags, etc.

Did you know?

• The annual cost of plastic bags to US retailers alone is estimated at $4 billion. When retailers give away free bags, their costs are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
• Between 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed and discarded annually worldwide—more than a million per minute.
• Plastic bags aren’t biodegradable – it takes 1,000 years for one plastic bag to break down. They go through a process called photodegradation—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic particles that contaminate both soil and water.
• Hundreds of thousands of whales, dolphins, sea turtles and other marine mammals die every year after eating discarded plastic bags they mistake for food.
• About 8% to 10% of our total oil supply goes to making plastic (12 million barrels per year for just the U.S.).