To minimize the amount of waste in my city, I think it would be a perfect idea to  bring your own bag while shopping. Instead of loading up on single-use plastic bags, it is very simple to just bring a reusable bag for grocery shopping. Plastic takes anywhere from 450-1000 years to decompose completely, as compared to just 5 months for cotton. (http://www.down2earthmaterials.ie/2013/02/14/decompose/) Tons and tons of plastic is sitting in landfills and polluting our city. This could be avoided by using cloth bags, paper bags, or even just a purse. It would greatly reduce your carbon footprint, and it protects the city wildlife, too . I've seen countless bird living in nests made of plastic and trash. Sometimes, the plastic bags can float out to sea and strangle confused animals who mistake it for a jellyfish. Switching to reusable, non-plastic bags benefits everyone in the community.

I agree, bringing reusable bags to buy groceries would be an easy way to reduce the amount of plastic in our world. If people did this daily, not only would there be less plastic to decompose, but this also would decrease the amount of energy required to produce plastic. I saw this work very effectively in California and Oregon over the summer. The grocery store would charge 10 cents per plastic bag and this deterred people from using them. This would absolutely help reduce the amount of energy, animal deaths, and waste that plastic creates.

I agree that using reusable grocery bags rather than plastic bags are a great way to preserve our planet's resources and lower our carbon footprints. In my research, I found several alarming statistics about our national (USA) and worldwide plastic grocery bag usage. The United States goes through about 100 billion plastic shopping bags each year, spending about $4 billion. Worldwide, we go through up to 1 trillion bags per year - that's 1 million bags each minute! Billions of these plastic bags end up thrown on the side of the street or into the ocean rather than recycled.
     Investing in some good reusable shopping bags would be a great way to save money and our planet's resources. For more information and statistics, visit: https://conservingnow.com/plastic-bag-c … ion-facts/

I think that this is a great idea that many people should begin to apply this idea whenever they shop. I know from experience that we go grocery shopping at least two times a week and each time with about 5-8 grocery bags. These number can really add up!

I agree. In my research, I found that several cities in the United States including Chicago, Austin, and Los Angeles put a ban on plastic bags. This way, when people go to stores, they must bring their own reusable bags which greatly decreases plastic use and litter. Other cities put a fee on plastic bags in grocery stores. If you bring your own reusable bag, you don't need to pay a fee but if you need a plastic bag an additional fee is added to your total. Most people want to be money efficient and decide to buy reusable bags and only have to pay once rather than having to pay for plastic bags every time. This way, they are decreasing their money spent and their negative impact on the environment.
Source: http://www.ncsl.org/research/environmen … ation.aspx