What YOU Can Do #1 - Convenience Will Kill You

You may think that making a difference takes a lot of effort and that you have to go wayyy out of your daily routine. The truth is, there are many little effortless things you can do that can make a difference. Hopefully I can convince you to take a step in the right direction...

One of the first and most important steps we can all take to a cleaner environment and healthy ecosystems is supporting city, county, state, even nation-wide Plastic Bag Bans. These convenient little floating globs made of polyethylene derived from gas and petroleum are literally choking the environment to death.

Literally.

BRING YOUR OWN REUSABLE BAGS WHEN YOU GO SHOPPING.

At the grocery store, at the mall, anywhere. Keep a stash of reusable bags in your car so you'll always have them when you do your shopping. This is perhaps one of the greatest steps we can take to reducing our waste output.

Why should we stop using single-use plastic bags?

1. The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that about 380 billion plastic bags are used in the U.S. annually.
2. It was also estimated that only 5% of single-use plastic bags get recycled. Other sources say its closer to 1%. It's all bad
3. Plastic bags account for more than 8% of marine litter.
4. Plastic marine debris harms and kills 100,000 marine animals each year, over 200 species are affected.
5. They've been banned already in more than 25% of the world. So you're way behind.
6. You could choose to get stylish, cute reusable bags so you feel motivated to bring them everywhere! Make a fashion statement! Be unique! Look at this one!
7. Out of sight, out of mind? Yeah, right. These suckers take up to 1000 years to degrade.

In California the cities of San Francisco, Fairfax, Oakland, San Jose, Malibu have bans on plastic bags, as well as Los Angeles County, and most recently Marin County--home of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project's headquarters.

Still not convinced? CHECK THIS VID OUT.

AND THIS ONE.

AND THIS ONE TOO.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/weekinreview/01basics.html

http://environment.about.com/od/recycling/a/reusablebags.htm

and you should probably check this out too: http://lee.ifas.ufl.edu/fyn/fynpubs/thedangersofplasticbags.pdf