People have steadily been coming to the realization that climate change is not a conspiracy, but a real problem that humans caused. It means more than just hotter summers for humans, though. It means the extinction of many species, the displacement of coastal populations, and more. So, what does the average person do about this terrifying problem once they become aware of it? Start on the path to a lifestyle that is less damaging to the Earth, but such a drastic change can start with a small step. One small change with a big impact can be to trade disposable shopping bags for reusable clothes ones. The three advantages of cloth bags listed here should convince even the skeptics of what a big deal even this small step would be.
- Disposable Bags Stick Around: Those handy plastic bags people so often carry home groceries with seems like such a great option. They make things easy to carry and it?s plastic so they are recycled, right? No. Plastic bags generally go straight to the landfill, where it takes them anywhere between 15 and 1,000 years to decompose, depending on the environment of the region. The paper options are, sadly, no better. A landfill is a far cry from a natural environment, and without the normal processes that cause decomposition, paper bags rot in landfills for a long time, making the benefits of a reusable bag even clearer.
- Saving Sea Life: A smaller percentage of the plastic shopping used daily go to a different place than the landfills mentioned above. That alternate resting place is the ocean, where they drift away to float in giant masses so monstrous they can be seen by pilots flying overhead. Worse, the plastic often becomes accidentally consumed, each year killing an estimated one million birds, 100,000 sea turtles, and many more creatures, as well. Cloth shopping bags simply do not carry that sort of risk.
- Decomposing Into Poisons: One of the main advantages of cloth bags is when they are eventually thrown away, they will biodegrade, unlike their plastic counterparts, which photo-degrade instead. That difference matters to the oceans, which do not avoid the plastic bags thrown into landfills. Those bags just decompose into smaller toxins, which eventually will end up in the water to further poison the environment.
The advantages of cloth bags are evident to anyone willing to read about the long term effects of the disposable bags they replace. By trading plastic tote bags for reusable bags, people can make a true, lasting difference. For more information see this.