Plastic Bags
Worldwide consumers use up to 1.5 trillion plastic bags every year. In the consumers possession the plastic bags stay with them for an average of fifteen minutes before they get thrown away or released to blow down into the wind, down our streets, and into our world. In Israel the average time of holding on to a single plastic bag is twenty minutes. The use of plastic bags tally's up to $4 million per year for retailers. One company which buys half of the used plastic bags in the United States that are available on the open air market and uses 1.5 billion bags per year. Ontario uses 2.6 billion bags per year and one - hundred million in the waterloo region by itself. (Savage 2008), (McMahon 2008), (Mieszkowski 2007), As for Americans we consume anywhere between thirty and one hundred billion plastic bags per year, enough to circle the world thirty - one times. In Ireland the government said they calculated there per capita use of plastic bags from three hundred twenty - eight per year to twenty - one. In 2006 however, it went back up to fifty percent, which is thirty - one plastic bags per person per year and that had forced the government to increase the levy to a price of twenty - two cents in July of last year. China uses more than three billion plastic bags a day, but due to that they have put an end to that with a ban. Every year in America, Americans throw away nearly one - hundred billion plastic bags which is equal to throwing away twelve million barrels of oil, or taking two - thousand two - hundred fifty bags to make a sixteen foot two inch by six inch wood plank. (Dodd 2008), (Grose 2008), Due to the massive number of plastic bags being used and how many people are using them cites, stated, and countries are cracking down on plastic bags by taking steps to decrease the use of bags with bans and regulations for stores, supermarkets, and cites. Many of the cities that have already have bans include Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Portland, Oregon,