My friend Astrid kept me good and green by buying me a Baggu. It's the same concept as the I'm not a Plastic Bags, but it's better in one very vital way. You can scrunch it up in your purse, therefore having it on your person at all times, making the bag actually useful. I can't tell you how many deli meats and bottles of whiskey my little red helper has brought home.
Plus, as we all know now, it's just better for our planet. Here are some staggering facts:
* Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.
* The U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually.
* Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade – breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
* Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.
But what do you think?