BYOB: Bring Your Own Bags

Cut down on waste, easily.

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Photo: Harrison Eastwood/ Istock

By The Daily Green Staff

You've just finished your food shopping and are feeling pretty good about all the healthy, organic, sustainable, compassionately raised items in your cart as you stand at the check out counter. Then you're hit with one last decision: What type of grocery bags do you want, paper or plastic?

The answer is neither. Instead, choose to BYOB, or Bring Your Own Bag. Each year the United States consumes 30 billion plastic and 10 billion paper grocery bags, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. That translates to about 14 million trees and 12 million barrels of oil. And then there's what happens after the bags are used -- they clog landfills, contaminate recycling and composting facilities, and litter the landscape.

San Francisco became the first U.S. city to officially recognize the problem when it banned plastic checkout bags in 2007, a move it hoped would encourage the use of biodegradable plastic bags. So avoid adding to bag pollution by always bringing your own reusable ones. And should you be caught without them, recycle any plastic bags back to the store they came from.

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