Just One Thing: Green Your Grocery Bags

May 28, 2009 — -- Greening your grocery bags is just one thing you can do that will have a big impact on the environment.

Americans use 380 billion plastic bags, and only 1 percent of those are recycled. You can cut those numbers drastically by limiting the use of plastic bags in your home.

It takes about 20 billion barrels of oil to make 5 trillion plastic bags. Americans alone use more than 380 billion polyethylene bags and throw away approximately 100 billion of them per year. Only about 1 percent of these plastic bags are recycled.

Scientists estimate that it takes 1,000 years for a polyethylene bag to break down, and as polyethylene breaks down, toxic substances leach into the soil and enter the food chain.

The bags also take a more immediate toll on the environment: Approximately 1 billion seabirds and mammals die per year by ingesting plastic bags.

San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City have all made moves to ban or limit the use of plastic bags.

In 2007, San Francisco was the first city in the United States to ban plastic bags at chains and large stores grossing more than $2 million a year, but so far the ban has not been hugely successful in altering consumers' throwaway behavior.

Unfortunately, according to San Francisco Weekly.com, more bags were found on the street by researchers in 2008 than before the ban, even though overall litter was down 17 percent.

In May 2009, the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban plastic bags from stores beginning July 1, 2010. Shoppers can either bring their own bags or pay 25 cents for a paper or biodegradable bag.

The vote also puts pressure on the state to impose bag recycling requirements on stores. By implementing the ban, the council hopes to minimize cleanup costs for the city and reduce trash that collects in storm drains and the Los Angeles River.

The city estimates more than 2 billion bags are used each year in Los Angeles, and about 5 percent of plastic and 21 percent of paper bags are recycled in California.