Plastic shopping bags are a plague on our planet. Everywhere we turn, we’re offered yet another disposable plastic bag, and for the most part, they end up going home with us, where we then need to deal with them. And the numbers are staggering: An estimated 102 billion plastic bags were used in 2009 in the U.S. alone (and 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags used worldwide each year).
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Bringing your own reusable bag with you when you go shopping can help bypass this menace (or simply telling the cashier “I don’t need a bag. I can carry this.”), and luckily for us, there are quite a few options for individuals to get reusable shopping bags.
But what would be even better would be for businesses and organizations to ditch the disposables and use only reusable bags for their branding and ‘gimme’ (SWAG) items. One source for these that recently came to my attention is ReuseThisBag.com.
“We are surfers, waiters, executives, artists, designers, bartenders and just about every walk of life you can imagine. You don’t have to be an environmentalist to want to help the Earth! We started the company as a way to give back and help the environment! We all grew up here in California and have seen plastic bags on the beach and in the water for years! Recently I was running on the beach and found 6 plastic bags during my mile and a half trip.
Other than that there isn’t much one person alone can do to make a significant impact on this crazy world. But… if we spread the word about the importance of reusing our grocery bags, work together, and somehow this movement catches on, the resulting benefit to the Earth is going to be huge! We are talking millions of gallons of fresh water saved, millions of gallons of fuel saved, and hundreds of thousands of acres of forest land saved every year! If we accomplish that, then I guess we have done our job.” – says Doug Lober, ReuseThisBag.com
If your business is in the market for reusable shopping bags (or if you’re looking for a supplier of custom bags for an event), check out the full line of bags at ReuseThisBag.com.
