Why plastic bags should be avoided

http://vitalvotes.com/blogs/public_blog/Why-Plastic-Shopping-Bags-Should-Be-Avoided-8116.aspx

California frequently leads the way for other states in environmental legislation. Soon, for the second time in three years, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors will consider a measure that would ban the use of plastic shopping bags distributed at stores larger than 5,000 square feet.

The measure would require retail stores to use paper bags made from recyclables or plastic bags that can be broken down into compost; it is a new approach to a failed 2005 proposal that would have imposed a 17-cent fee on each plastic bag a consumer takes home from a store.

San Francisco alone uses roughly 1 million plastic bags each year. Further:

* Producing 1 million plastic bags generates 13 million pounds of carbon dioxide.
* It takes 11 barrels of oil to produce a ton of plastic bags.
* Some 950 tons of plastic bags invade landfills, because only 1 percent of them are ever recycled

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MY PERSONAL NOTES:
Carry along canvas totes to use instead of plastic or paper!