Leftoverbags.com - The Blog

Plastic Bags Statistics - And They’re Not Looking So Good

Petroleum-based grocery bags hit the checkout aisle in 1977. Presented as a revolutionary idea, they are now recognized as an environmental hazard. Just like bottled water, plastic bags are made from crude oil, contributing to global warming.

The Numbers

Up to 1000 - Estimated years for a plastic bag to decompose.
1460 - Plastic bags used in a year by an average family of four in the U.S.
12 million - Barrels of oil used to make the plastic bags that the U.S. consumes annually.
Less than 1% - Percentage of all plastic bags that get recycled in the U.S.
88.5 billion – Plastic bags consumed in the U.S. last year.
500 billion – Estimated plastic bags sold worldwide each year.

The Countries

San Francisco has banned non-biodegradable plastic bags in large grocery stores.
Ireland has a $.20 tax per bag.
France is banning plastic bags starting 2010 and starting 2008 in Paris.
South Africa has banned thin plastic bags
Uganda has banned thin plastic bags and has taxes on thicker ones.
Kenya is banning plastic bags starting 2008.
Zanzibar Islands have banned all plastic bags.
Mumbai, New Delhi, and two states in India have banned all plastic bags.
Bangladesh has banned all plastic bags.
Taiwan has banned all plastic bags as well as disposable plastic plates, cups, and cutlery.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/cheap-green-reusing-plastic-bags/?hp

November 14, 2008, 7:42 am
Cheap Green: Reusing Plastic Bags
By Kate Galbraith

Web users are sharing a variety of ways to reuse plastic bags. This project appears on Flickr. Being rather old-fashioned (as well as working for The New York Times), I subscribe to the newspaper — the actual printed copy. It gets plunked down on my doorstep every morning — always in a plastic bag, just in case it rains.

So despite my efforts to take a cloth bag to the grocery store, plastic newspaper bags are piling up under my kitchen sink. They can be recycled: most Whole Foods stores around the country have a plastic-bag deposit bin, for example, and plasticbagrecycling.org also provides localized tips.

But there are plenty of other uses, too. Many websites have sprung up with suggestions, some with exotic notions such as cutting bags into strips and weaving them into dresses or hats. Personally I use newspaper bags to store food in my refrigerator — opened packages of cheese, for example, or a bundle of scones.

I haven’t perished yet. If I had a dog, I would use plastic bags for the obvious.

The better news is that even newspaper bags are getting greener. I emailed with a New York Times spokeswoman, Abbe Serphos, about the bags. She told me:
Our current plastic bags are produced using a high percentage of recycled material and the bags can be recycled.

By early 2009, The Times should be fully converted to utilizing a new bio-degradable polybag for newspaper deliveries around the country. The bag is produced by GP Plastics and they call it their PolyGreen bag. The bag begins to degrade in the open environment within a few months and within two to three years when in a landfill.

With this new technology an additive is mixed with the plastic that causes the finished product to degrade over time, as it is exposed to oxygen in the open environment or in a landfill. In addition to being “oxo-biodegradable” the bag can be recycled along with any other plastic bags. The Times will be the first national newspaper to commit to using this environmentally friendly bag. While this new bag is more expensive, we believe it is an important change to make.

Ultimately, of course, it would be good to get away from plastic bags. Manufacturing them consumes plenty of energy — 40 percent more than paper bags although 40 percent less than paper bags, according to a recent article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which lays out the age-old paper versus plastic debate.

And in grocery stores in New York, the cheapest plastic bags may soon be none at all: Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to slap a 6 cent per tax on plastic bags, following in the tradition of cities in Europe.

“when plastic degrats it just gets smaller and smaller. In the ocean there are so many plastic shreds they compete with plankton and get eaten by whales.”

-its not a suprise. its nothing new. but damn is it sad.

Went to the taco stand today.

I ordered my tacos awkwardly and waited.

When i got my tacos they expected me to take my tacos with me, so put them in a bag.

But I said, “I will eat those tacos here.” The taco lady took them out of the bag and gave me the plate.

+1 taking tacos out of bag

-1 having a bag in the first place (without asking)

Let me tell you about all of the bags I see laying leftover. It’s pretty much every day and I’m sick of it. Bags laying in the street, bags stuck on poles, bags in the gutter blocking mud and leafs. Stinkin’ bags…

No matter how much I avoid it, leftover bags are all around.

We need strong hands if we are ever going to punch every single person we see carrying a leftover bag.

Wow, been seeing some great things about bags lately… The internet is an amazing thing in it’s capacity to spread the word! We gotten get them bags picked up, before they get us.

Just look what happened to toads friend frog.

Anyway, here is a pretty good slide show about tragic leftover bags done by Pocono Records. There is a YouTube video that was similar which i saw the other day. Will post it to the videos soon! Spread the word!!

Death of a Plastic Bag

Written by Erica, Posted on June 20th

(for http://undergroundboston.net/)
if anyone knows this girl we’d like to say thank you.

I’m trying to get my mother to abandon plastic bags. Granted this is a little unfair of me because A. We have a dog and B. I still occasionally use them myself. But now that I stumbled upon leftoverbags.com I’m making the switch for good. These 100% organic cotton bags are just too freakin’ funny to not be worn on my shoulder, or anyone else’s for that matter. 

Bags can be purchased on the website for $15.00 including shipping. The bags are pretty big—definitely large enough to fit a days worth of unneeded crap one picks up on errands, or to hold all the yummy things you bought to cook me dinner. The best feature of the bag (along with saving the environment one bag at a time) is choosing what exactly your new ecofriendly bag will look like. (Geez this word has been overused lately.)

Before you pay for your bag flip through the online gallery and choose one of Robin Lee’s images to impose on the bag. Lee, who specializes in what he calls “wacky art”, does all the artwork on the bags. Wacky art is simply satirical and/or whimsical paintings done by Lee with leftoverbags.com in mind. These include a painting of penguins partying it up at a penguin strip club, plastic bags waiting in line at a voting booth, and my favorite, a fork and spoon in the delivery room holding a baby spork. Sporks are by far the cutest utensil; and a baby spork wrapped in a blanket in his mother’s arms? Simply adorable. Lee also paints a lot of scenes depicting his concern for the environment if you want to be clear that your bag is making more than a fashion statement.

The website also contains some surprisingly funny anecdotes about plastic bags, like a link of plastic bag jokes some of which are quite funny if you enjoy jokes about dead babies.  In addition to the bag jokes is a photo journal of plastic bags a la American Beauty, and a very helpful link of suggestive uses for plastic bags (“ghetto kite”).

By far the greatest thing about leftoverbags.com is how much fun the folks behind the screen seem to be having while raising hell about plastic bags. They know how important it is to reuse and reduce but instead of being preachy about it they’re making jokes. And I don’t care how old you are—a plastic bag dead baby joke never ages. 

Don’t do it! Pick up your bags!!