I noticed that a lot of people have discussed the issue of using plastic grocery bags. This is also an issue that has concerned me because I constantly see plastic bags littering the side of freeways, creeks, and other places. Before plastic bags were banned in my community, my family used to always have a large stock of these bags in our house because we saved our plastic grocery bags to pick up dog waste. About six years ago, my sister and I wanted to find another use for all of the plastic bags that come from grocery stores, so we started using them in art projects. First, we tried weaving them into mats, and then we started making friendship bracelets out of them and even knitting with them. Using plastic bags in art is a great way to minimize the amount of plastic bags that are thrown out as trash and contribute to the waste that ends up in oceans and landfills. 
 
In 2013, Alameda County banned grocery stores and some other businesses from providing plastic bags. To encourage people to use re-usable bags when they shop, stores were also forced to charge at least  ten cents for a paper bag. Luckily, this is helping to improve the Bay Area’s plastic bag situation. However, plastic bags are still an issue in other parts of California, the U.S., and the world.

I did not realize that this issue was so prevalent in Africa until I found an article on the efforts being made there to help resolve this issue. The author of the article describes the many negative effects of plastic bags: oil and gases are used to produce the bags, plastic bags kill wildlife, litter roads and waterways, clog drains and cause flooding, and they are photodegradable instead of biodegradable, which means that the sun breaks it down into particles that are toxic and continue to pollute the environment. Some of the efforts made in Africa to re-purpose plastic bags are truly amazing. For instance, plastic bags are melted into bricks that are used to repair roads and make them safer. Similar to the knitting and weaving projects that my sister and I used plastic bags for, a group called “Africa Bags” uses bags to make crafts by hand. Hopefully programs like these to eliminate bags and re-purpose them will continue to grow world-wide.

Link to the article: http://www.obaasema.com/africa-tackles- … tal-issue/

Those seem like very creative ways to re-purpose plastic bags. Plastic bags actually take 10-20 years for them to break down. Additionally all the plastic bags littered on the side of the road, including all the other trash, will find its way through waterways and into the ocean. Because of the currents, the trash will then be circulated throughout the ocean, polluting the water and seriously injuring marine life. The water bottles and occasional food wrappers people litter the ground with add up and turn into large garbage patches that accumulate in the oceans. It’s important for people to reuse and repurpose their trash to reduce the pollution. My family and I reuse plastic bags from the grocery store only for our waste baskets. I like the idea of making the bags into pieces of art and other types of crafts, but it would be more effective on a much bigger level. It would be great if there was a program to donate all the excess plastic bags to help projects like the one in Africa that you mentioned.

When my family goes grocery shopping, we always bring reusable bags with us, and if there aren't enough of them to put all of our products in, then we use recycled paper bags, which we re-use by putting them at the bottom of pet's cages or by using them as containers for all of the objects in our house that we like to recycle (example: we keep one recycled paper bag near the trash can, and we put things like glass and paper in this bag rather than the trash can so we know to recycle it later). Many people have conflicting opinions over how much good reusable bags actually do, as seen in this article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor … =111672574 However, not only do reusable bags reduce the overall carbon footprint of an area (even if just by one percent or a fraction of a percent), it adds up with other efforts to reduce global warming emissions in the world. Using these bags also reduces the amounts of plastic bags that get littered everywhere and end up in stream and oceans, negatively affecting wildlife.

My family and I use reusable bags each time we go to the grocery store. I think all the plastic bags that grocery stores give out each year is terrible for the environment. What is grocery stores gave out reusable bags for customers instead of using plastic bags and offered discounts each time the customer brought back the reusable bags? Not only would it be great for the environment, but it would encourage customers to use reusable bags instead of those plastic bags.