Single-use plastic bags are convenient, but because of their shape and lightweight, plastic bags easily get picked up by the wind and washed down storm drains into our creeks, lakes, bays, the Gulf, and beyond. Plastic debris can harm creatures in multiple ways:
You can help by using fewer new bags and reusing what you already have. Let's start building a Clean Water Future by doing something small that makes a big difference
For the last 20 years, worldwide production of plastic has been increasing at an average rate of 5% per year. In 2011, 32 millions tons of plastic were produced in the US alone, a large part of that is used in packaging. (PlasticsEurope Market Research Group)
graph by Plastic Europe
Researchers estimate there are 21 million metric tons of plastic in the top 200 meters of the Atlantic alone, and evidence of microplastics as remote as the tops of the Pyrenees mountains and at the bottom of the Pacific ocean. (Hersher et al, 2020, via NPR)
Debris on Dauphin Island Beach - Photo by Caitlin Wessel
32 million tons of plastic were produced in the US in 2012, and 14 million tons of that was for containers and packaging, yet only 13.8% of that was recycled. The rest ended up in a landfill or worse was washed into our streams and rivers (EPA, 2012)
In 2020, volunteers picked up 272,399 plastic bags in coastal cleanups across the world. Plastic bags are consistently in the top 10 types of trash collected during cleanup days worldwide (Ocean Conservancy, 2021).
Microplastics are plastic particles that are 5mm or less, and they can be harmful to our environments and oceans. (NOAA, 2024)
Degraded plastics recovered from Dauphin Island by Caitlin Wessel
Close to 18% of our municipal solid waste stream in 2013 was made of plastic materials, and that is after recycling and composting. (EPA, 2013).
Use totes or fabric bags when you go grocery shopping. This will help reduce the total amount of plastic bags produced.
Keep a foldable shopping bag in your backpack or purse, so you always have a bag available.
Reusing your plastic grocery bags will keep the bags out of landfills and our waters. Keep some in your car and use them the next time you shop. Keep in mind that you can reuse the small produce bags as well.
When you find yourself without any reusable bags, ask for fewer bags, pack the bags yourself, or for a few items, ask for no bags at all!
If you quilt or love to sew, make yourself some fabric bags. They make perfect presents. Tutorial to sew a bag from fabric (theeverydayfarmhouse.com)
Photo by Jennifer Dynys
Recycle plastic grocery bags at your recycle center or at stores like Walmart supercenter, Neighborhood market, Target, Lowe's. Find your closest Recycling Center
FactoryDirect Promos has a simple guide on how to get your community to implement a plastic bag ban.
1. Do Your Homework,
2. Start a Movement,
3. Work with Your Local Officials
How many plastic bags are used each year? We use 5 trillion plastic bags… per year! That’s 160,000 a second! And over 700 a year for every single person on the planet. We can do better than that. (TheWorldCounts.com)
In 2017, Boston, Massachusetts, passed a city ordinance to reduce the number of plastic bags used in the city.
In 2011, the Seattle City Council adopted a city ordinance that regulates the distribution of single-use plastic and biodegradable carryout bags and requiring retail establishments to collect a pass-through charge from customers requesting recyclable paper carryout bags.
Washing your car can send harmful chemicals down storm drains not designed to filter water and from there chemicals and soap will get into our streams, bay and Gulf where they can harm marine creatures, plant life and water quality
In a rainy place like the Gulf coast, litter and plastic debris is easily washed into storm drains and from there into our streams, bay and Gulf. Making sure our trash gets into trash cans to be processed by city services, helps keep our water clean.
When water rushes off hardened surfaces, erosion of sediments degrade water conditions and smother and disrupt seagrass growth and the habitat for benthic organisms they provide.
Compounds like oil, grease, and heavy metals take a long time to break down and threaten the health of both aquatic and human life.
Litter is not only unsightly, but it also causes a variety of problems to the ecosystem as it enters our waters where it is often is mistaken for food by fish and invertebrates.
Too much fertilizer, pet waste, and other nutrients in our water often lead to serious problems like lowering dissolved oxygen levels, preventing seagrass growth, and killing fish.
Disease-causing microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, and other single-celled organisms, are referred to as pathogens, some, like Salmonella, cause human health problems.
While pesticides are designed to be toxic to certain organisms, they can often be harmful and kill other species in the marine system that are important for the entire ecosystem.