Use of Plastic Bags & Their Impact on the Evironment

The United States uses 100 billion plastic bags each year. But while seemingly harmless, plastic bags have many negative environmental effects.

Litter

• Plastic bags create added litter to the landscape. Because they are light and easily blow in the wind, plastic bags can make their way out from the trash can and end up as unwanted litter.

Harm to Animals

• Once the plastic bags are released into nature, they become harmful to the native animals. Bags enter forests, rivers and lakes, where animals die from ingesting them or get fatally entwined in them. Each year, 100,000 animals die because of plastic bags.

Impact

• Because plastic bags are made from synthetic material, they do not biodegrade. It takes 1,000 years for a plastic bag to decompose. The population is using bags at a rate that is unsustainable based on how long it takes for them to decompose.

Effects

• Petroleum, a resource that is in high demand, is used to make plastic bags. By using petroleum to make plastic bags, there is a lot less of this nonrenewable resource to use for other things such as transportation.

Steps Taken

• Countries such as Bangladesh, China and Rwanda have banned free plastic bags. Ireland taxes plastic bags. San Francisco was the first city in the U.S. to ban them.