Plastic bags are everywhere. You can't drive down a road or walk on a sidewalk without seeing these colorful culprits tangled around telephone poles, trees, and weeds. They even manage to find their way into rivers and other natural areas, resulting in death of animals who accidentally eat or get tangled in them.

Plastic bags are made of polyethylene, a petroleum product that takes 1,000 years to break down. And by "break down," I don't mean that they magically disappear into nothingness.

Plastic photodegrades, meaning sunlight breaks up the plastic into small pieces. These pieces stay in the environment indefinitely and absorb contaminants like PCB’s and DDT, which then proceed to contaminate water and soil supplies. While you digest that fact, here are some others to consider:

• Plastic bags are on the top 10 list of most common trash items along the American coastline (both on land and in the water).
• Only 5 percent of all plastic bags are recycled nationwide.
• The production of plastic bags creates enough solid waste per year to fill the Empire State Building two and a half times!
• Nationwide, grocery stores and pharmacies go through about 92 billion plastic bags a year.
• Retailers in the United States spend $4 billion a year on plastic bags, which gets passed on to customers with higher prices.
• Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That's over 1 million plastic bags per minute.
• Plastic bags are a $1 billion industry.

Fortunately, U.S states and countries around the world have taken or are in the process of taking action against the usage of plastic bags. In 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them must pay 33 cents per bag at the register. Stores such as IKEA and Whole Foods either charge a fee for plastic bags or have eliminated them entirely.

If you do end up using plastic bags, try to reuse them. Use them to pick up pet poo, as a trash bag for your car, trash can liners, etc. Then, recycle them!  The best thing you can do, however, is bring your own bag. Buy a cloth or canvas bag and keep it in your car so that you don't forget to use it on your next grocery trip. Sites such as envirosax.com sell trendy, reusable bags; and many grocery stores offer them as well. So, next time you hit up the grocery store, whip out your hip "Save The Whales" canvas bag and maybe you can actually help save marine life.

--Lauren

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