Thanks for visiting and welcome to my ‘No more plastic bags!’ Blog. Here I want to talk about why need to save our Manhattan, Kansas community, but also how this can influence and help our country as well.
How many times do we go into stores and walk out with plastic bags? How many times do we mean to bring our own bags into the store and just forget? There are so many different instances where we use plastic bags that we don’t even need. I will talk about the usage of plastic bags and why they aren’t needed in our communities and how we don’t even realize how many we waste. We need to understand that each reusable bag we use can eliminate hundreds and maybe thousands of plastic bags! It is up to us!
To get started, here are some (not so) fun facts about plastic bags!
We use approximately 1 million bags every single minute in the U.S.
The U.S. consumes 30 billion plastic grocery bags per year.
Only 1% on plastic bags are recycled annually in the U.S.
Plastic bags are made from petroleum and therefore contribute a great deal to diminishing natural resources.
Plastic bags are non-biodegradable, taking up to 1000 years to decompose on land.
Bags end up in our ocean and cause harm to marine life!! L The bags can be mistaken for jellyfish and eaten, killing an estimated 100,000 marine mammals each year.
Every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it, and this plastic litter is the second-most common type behind cigarette butts.
As I thought to myself about these facts, I knew I wanted to relate my topic towards animals. Because we live in Manhattan, near no oceans, people probably don’t consider how they are helping or hurting marine life. I want to make sure people know that it’s just not the local community we should be concerned with. I care about animals a lot, whether if it’s in the community or not. So I think that by conserving and not using plastic bags here locally, I will know I am making a little bit of a difference even in the oceans!
As a college student’s we may not understand how much we contribute to each and every one of those plastic bags we use per minute. In all reality this problem may never stop, but people like me can help decrease this problem in our community.
8 comments
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February 14, 2012 at 12:03 pm
lluc8
I completely agree with you! There are too many plastic bags in use. Even though they can be recycled, many of them just aren’t. I look forward to reading more. Could you post the source for your “(not so) fun facts?”
February 15, 2012 at 12:28 am
sorgnut
“Because we live in Manhattan, near no oceans, people probably don’t consider how they are helping or hurting marine life.”
Good point! I wish that plastic bags were the only example of people becoming mentally distanced from physically distant problems.
February 16, 2012 at 10:05 pm
jrgn88
Good facts! This is definitely a big problem. How are you planning to tackle it? Will you be researching the issue or trying to get Manhattanites to stop using plastics bags? If you want to start some kind of “Ban the Bag” campaign on campus or in the community, I could get Students for Environmental Action involved. Just let me know in class or on here.
Juergen
February 25, 2012 at 11:18 pm
marykgreen
Its so sad to think about the amount of stuff we throw in the oceans; the floating mass of crap and trash in the pacific ocean (Pacific Trash Vortex) is such a big, never-ending mess. I thought the stats on the number of bags per square mile was just heartbreaking.
I think you are right about Kansans forgetting about the effect that they can have on the ocean so far away. Especially because there are such easy ways to cut back on or stop using them.
February 27, 2012 at 11:47 am
dbelljr
I agree with you. Plastic bags are a problem. My family keeps the bags we get from grocery stores and we have accumulated too many. We do use them for other things but after they break we throw them away. Where can we go to recycle these bags? Do you know what they are turned in to?
February 29, 2012 at 1:58 pm
danilucas2012
I had no idea there was that much wast in plastic bags out there, that’s really scary to me. And taking 1000 years at least to decompose? That’s outrageous. I have to admit, if I had a better memory, I would be taking my own bags to the grocery store all the time…but I just about always forget them, sadly. By following your posts, I hope to spark my memory more and try to do my part to cut down on plastic waste. Thanks!
March 2, 2012 at 12:19 am
ecotourksu
I like your project a lot. I know when I go shopping I always seem to forget to bring a reusable bag, so i have starting carrying a large purse. What is worse is that it is K-State doesn’t recycle that grade of plastic here on campus.
May 4, 2012 at 2:57 am
Amazon SWO
I have seen plastic bags wrapped around sea life, and birds, but what shocked me the most is finding a walmart bags in the islands of trash at sea. Here they are in trees, and on the wind, and so why I expected any different I am not sure, except it is alot further away from people there.