You’re likely to take home plastic bags from virtually any and every establishment you shop at. Convenience stores and gas stations readily bag up multiple items in plastic bags. People rarely use paper bags at grocers like Walmart and Kroger, leaving you with five, 10, or even more plastic sacks. Anytime you order takeout, you’re also likely to receive your order in a – you guessed it – plastic bag.
Plastic is such a popular material because it’s cheap to produce, versatile, and convenient. Unfortunately, however, plastic is made primarily from fossil fuels. Further, plastic doesn’t readily biodegrade. Thin layers of plastic that “Walmart bags,” as they’re called in the Southeast, require anywhere between 10 and 1,000 years to decompose organically.