You won’t even believe it when we tell you that just the use of reusable grocery bags and how big of an impact there could be. Most people understand that plastic bags have a negative impact on the environment. However, most of them don’t know why and how that happens.
When you will make the switch from plastic bags to reusable grocery bags, you will feel no need to carry around plastic ones because you will realize how convenient reusable grocery bags are. Moreover, when there will be less demand for plastic bags, there will be less production.
5 Ways that Reusable Grocery Bags Help the Environment
A simple action, such as taking your groceries home in reusable grocery bags, can set off a chain of events that benefits the environment in several ways. Single-use plastic bags are bad news for the environment, from the resources consumed to make them through their disposal and likelihood of becoming trash. Reusable supermarket bags can help the ecosystem recover by righting the wrongs caused by plastic bags.
Plastic Bags Use Up Nonrenewable Resources
Oil is a fossil fuel and a nonrenewable resource and plastic bags are made from oil. Moreover, greenhouse gases are emitted in the process of manufacturing disposable plastic shopping bags. So, with the decrease in demand for plastic shoppers, the production of plastic bags will lessen. Hence, the environment will not be flooded with the resulting greenhouse gases.
Reusable Bags Save Trees
Paper bags have the same destiny as disposable plastic bags. Moreover, by eliminating paper bags a few resources would be wasted. Similarly, paper bags are used from materials such as virgin fiber or recycled content, and yes, the latter is much less harmful to the environment. However, using neither is for the best because it’s encouraged to use touts and reusable bags as it saves more than a million paper and plastic bags thanks to the use of reusable bags. You can carry around your groceries all year long using just one reusable bag, not worry about what it would do to the environment.
Less Litter
The litter of plastic bags is the carelessness of shoppers and the terrible manufacturing process that goes into the making of these plastic bags. Similarly, bags that are lightweight can easily find their way out of a garbage can or a landfill. Unfortunately, they are so lightweight that they can wind up anywhere which clogs down drains and leads to all sorts of problems for humans and animals. Hence, the litter found in the ocean has caused many fish creatures to suffer because of our negligence towards them. Furthermore, ecosystems that are choked with litter are a common sight that we see nowadays.
Reusable bags can survive for years without needing to be repaired, recycled, or discarded, and even though many of them are made of plastic (specifically, polypropylene, a type of recycled plastic), their disposal does not contribute to pollution in the same way that their flimsy predecessors did.
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The production of plastic bags releases greenhouse gas. Moreover, reusable bags which are made from renewable resources, helps to prevent the building of greenhouse gases. There are environmental benefits when reusable bags are constructed from materials such as jute, cotton, or bamboo. Similarly, these are renewable materials with a rapid growth rate. Thus, allowing plants to be harvested and fresh crops to be planted in rapid succession.