Whats wrong with plastic bags?
The average American uses more than 300 plastic shopping bags per year. The plastic in those bags is made from irreplaceable fossil fuels and very few of the bags are ever recycled. If everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together in a giant chain, the chain would reach around the Earth not once, but 760 times! Plastic bags dont decompose, even when exposed to air and active bacteria. Plastic bags may break down over thousands of years, but that figure is just a guess since plastic bags have only been in use for about 60 years. In fact, many modern landfills are airtight and even newspapers that were thrown away fifty years ago are still perfectly preserved! When exposed to sunlight for extended periods of time, plastic bags will photo-degrade. In this situation, the plastic become brittle and breaks into small toxic bits that contaminate soil and waterways. These tiny shards of plastic are often mistaken for food by hungry birds and fish, and the
