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Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Step one: Get informed Step two: Get involved Step three: Get your community involved Did You Know: 1. Plastic bags can be made degradable. You can do more than recycle a bag, you can use a bag that’s molecular structure will be completely reduced to CO2, water and Humus. 2. Plastic Bags are 100%reusable and 100% recyclable 3. Approximately 90% of people reuse their plastic bags. [see also Top Ways to Reuse your bag]. 4. Plastic bags are an extremely resource-efficient choice. a. Plastic bags require 70% less energy to manufacture than paper bags. b. It takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than one pound of paper. c. Using plastic bags instead of paper decreases by half, the amount of CO2 produced in the environment. d. The production of plastic bags uses less than 4% of the water needed to make paper bags. e. In 2006 more than 812 million pounds of plastic film and bags were recycled. 5. 2000 paper bags weigh 280 pounds whereas the same number of plastic bags weighs only 30 pounds. 6. Plastic Bags are made from natural gas not oil. Therefore, the next time someone tries to tell you using plastic bags increases our addiction to oil, you can say no, they are made from polyethylene not oil. 7. If you knot your plastic bag in the middle it not only saves space in your pantry for reuse, it will also prevent it from flying away and getting caught in trees if accidently littered. 8. One of the most environmentally sustainable product available today is the plastic bag. It is lightweight, deceivingly strong, highly reusable, and fully recyclable. 9. The handles and seams of a plastic bag are approximately four times stronger than the rest of the bag, making it strong at the points of most stress. It’s Easy to Make a Difference Top Ways to Re-use Your Plastic Bag: 1. Garbage bag- especially for those small garbage bins in the laundry room, office, bedroom or restroom. 2. To pick up after your pets 3. To dispose of dirty diapers 4. For Packing – be it separating clothes in your traveling suitcase, packing a sack lunch, separating wet clothes after a day of swimming or exercising, or packing items you intend to ship. 5. Take your bag back to the store to be reused as grocery sack. 6. Keeping items dry during a rain storm. 7. Place them inside your shoes to keep your feet dry while walking in the rain. 8. Kitchen, place them under the cutting boards or have them handy while peeling fruits and vegetables for quick clean-up. 9. Sending your guests off with left over “goodies” 10. Keep your hands clean while doing household chores- just slip them over your hands, tie a rubber band around your wrist to hold them in place and clean! 11. Your own way! 1. Boustead Consulting & Associates LtdLife Cycle Assessment for Three Types of Grocery Bags; Recyclable Plastic, Compostable, Biodegradable Plastic; and Recycled, Recyclable Paper.2007. 2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Questions about Your Community Shopping Bags: Paper or Plastic. 3. Boustead Consulting, 2007. 4. Swiss Agency for Environment, Forests & Landscape –SAEFEL 1998. and Boustead Consulting, 2005. 5. Moore Recycling Associates, 2007. |
