The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About11/18/2008 03B Special Presentationl 780 n Distributed at 'Middl e. /I — /S—U 5 k,,113usiness Meeting Why Go Green? Wilson Middle Schools Go Green Campaign Why Use Recyclable Grocery Bags? Some startling facts: According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags. Four out of five grocery bags in the US are now plastic. The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store. Each high quality reusable bag you use has the potential to eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime. The bag will pay for itself if your grocery store offers a $.05 or $.10 credit per bag for bringing your own bags. Single -use bags made of high - density polyethylene (HDPE) are the main culprit. Once brought into existence to tote your purchases, they'll accumulate and persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years. Plastic bags account for over 10% of the debris washed up on our coastlines. Over time they photo degrade and breakup into more toxic petro polymers. It costs $4,000 to recycle one ton of plastic bags which can be sold on the commodities market for only $32.00. Data shows that between 500 Billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide every year. They have been found floating far north of the Arctic Circle and as far south as the Falkland Islands near the Antarctic. If you use a recyclable bag you can save 6 bags per week. That's 24 bags per month, 288 bags a year and 22,176 over an average lifetime. If one out of S people in our country did this we would save 1,330,560,000,000 bags in our lifetime. Bangladesh has banned plastic bags, China has banned free plastic bags, Ireland began taxing plastic bags in 2002 and has reduced plastic bag consumption by 90 %, Rwanda banned them in 2005, Israel, Canada, western India, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan and Singapore have banned them or are moving towards banning them. March 27th, 2007, San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to ban them. Plastic bags are made from polyethylene: a thermoplastic made from oil. Using reusable bags will help decrease our dependency on foreign oil. China figures to save 37 million barrels of oil from their ban on free plastic bags. So, are paper bags better? ENERGY TO PRODUCE BAG ORIGINALLY (BTUs) Safeway Plastic Bags: 594 BTUs Safeway Paper Bags: 2511 BTUs (Source: 1989 Plastic Recycling Directory, Society of Plastics Industry.) Of course, most paper comes from tree pulp, so the impact of paper bag production on forests is enormous. In 1999, 14 million trees were cut to produce the 10 billion paper grocery bags used by Americans that year alone. Paper bag production delivers a global warming double - whammy forests (major, absorbers of greenhouse gases) have to be cut down, and then the subsequent manufacturing of bags produces greenhouse gases. By switching to the compostable bags, San Francisco will be conserving 430,000 gallons of oil used to make traditional bags — the equivalent of keeping 140,000 cars off the street for a day. . Are you beginning to feel a little overwhelmed? You CAN make a difference, now, immediately. Use reusable bags, stop taking plastic bags, start a new habit and carry reusable bags. Most stores pay on the average, 5 cents for every reusable bag you bring in and use. They will pay for themselves very quickly and help us make a real difference in our economy, environment and reduce pollution. Go Green with Reusable Grocery Bags Sources CNN.com/technology November 16, 2007 National Geographic News 2003 British Antarctic Survey CAO QRCZV y�ICIMA Our "Go Green" logo has this symbolism designed into it. We think it reflects our community and the many great attributes of this valley. The "arrowhead" reflects the rich cultural heritage of the Yakama tribes from our area, the wheat stem, in place of feathers represents the agricultural bounty of the valley, the bent stem of the arrow is the bridge between the past and the present and the words Go Green is part of our future here. We would like to offer this logo as a gift to the city of Yakima as part of our efforts to help our community in its steps of stewardship to our region.