How Does Re-Using Cloth Grocery Bags Help The Environment?

Introduction

There are many ways to help the environment by recycling. Just about anything can be recycled from most metals to plastics and paper. Though plastic and paper bags can be recycled, recycling does cost money (though not as much as producing new). Recycling helps the environment by reusing non-biodegradables to make clean items.

Using Cloth Grocery Bags

Even with recycling, the factories used to recycle the plastics used in grocery bags create pollution. If you use cloth grocery bags, which are infinitely reusable (especially if you have a sewing machine for when they tear), you process the material only once, thereby reducing pollutants in the air and reducing the need to use more water.

Unlike plastic or paper, which can only be used two or three times, the cloth grocery bags can be used over and over again, and they are sturdier. Even though a lot of people try to recycle, it is too easy to throw out plastic bags and get new ones next time you visit the grocery store.

Once the plastic bag rips or otherwise ends its usefulness, it often ends up in the trash, then in the landfill. Since they are not biodegradable, they just sit there for years. People often separate their plastic bottles and containers and set them out for the recycling truck, but they do not think about the plastic bags. With cloth grocery bags, one does not have to even think about recycling the plastic bags. Our landfills will be less full if plastic bags are not constantly used -- even by just a part of the population.

Conclusion

Using cloth grocery bags reduces non-biodegradable items in landfills, saves on energy and water in the processing stage, and gives you a product that is much sturdier to use than plastic. Plastic ends up in not only our landfills, but our oceans, rivers and lakes. Plastic blows away and can be caught up in trees. It is damaging to wildlife -- whether the wildlife tries to eat it or gets strangled with plastic, it's just not a good outcome.

Resources

• Sweetbay Sells Cloth Grocery Bags
• Bags on the Run