GreenYour.com

Reusing a shopping bag extends the useful life of the bag and prevents it from entering the waste stream.

How to reuse your shopping bags

1. Keep bags in a convenient place, such as the trunk of your car or near the door, so that they are easily accessible to use again.
2. Take bags with you when you go shopping and present them to the cashier when you make your purchase.
3. If necessary, wash and dry plastic bags for reuse.
4. Recycle your plastic or paper bags when they are no longer usable.

Reusing your shopping bags helps you go green because …

• Each time a disposable bag is reused, it is prevented from entering the waste stream.
• It reduces the environmental and monetary costs of producing, transporting, recycling, and landfilling paper and plastic bags.
• It decreases deforestation, litter, and plastic particle contamination in the environment.

Each year, 30 billion plastic and 10 billion paper shopping bags are used in the United States, requiring about 14 million trees and 12 million barrels of oil.[1] These bags create an enormous amount of waste: the EPA reports that, in 2000, 3.3 million tons of polyethylene (plastic) bags, sacks, and wraps were discarded in the US.[2] Both paper and plastic bags also use a great deal of natural resources. For paper bags, which are made of virgin wood pulp, one 15- to 20- year old tree makes only 700 bags.[3]

Recycling or reusing one ton of paper bags saves 13 to 17 trees. Recycling or reusing one ton of plastic bags saves 11 barrels of oil.[4]

External links

• ReusableBags - Recycling Can Fix This, Right?
• Apartment Therapy - Top 10 Ways to Reuse Plastic Bags