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When I was a little girl I remember my grandmother taking her shopping bag to the grocery store. She didn't want a houseful of paper bags and felt even then that the best recycling one could do was to take their own bag to the store. Since then, I, like so many other Americans have become overrun by grocery bags everywhere in drawers with the intention to recycle but in the end get thrown out. I think my grandmother had the right idea all along.

The truth is, plastic bags our choking our planet and killing our wildlife. The simple reason for this is that they don't biodegrade, but photodegrade, which simply means the plastic breaks down into small toxic bits which contaminate the ground and waterways. These toxic bits are consummed by our animals, and our land where we grow food. In addition, it is a by-product of the oil industry requiring vast amounts of oil to produce billions of plastic bags.

Some cities across the country including San Francisco, Boston, Phoenix, and Berkeley among others have banned plastic bags in the city because of the pollution. In small towns across the country grocery stores are offering reusable bags at .99 cents each for people to become involved in real recycling.

Other research has come up that paper bags aren't all that environmentally friendly either. Creating recycled paper, it turns out, is a much more energy-intensive process than creating plastic bags. That's why grocery stores prefer you take the plastic. Plastic is also much easier to ship, as it takes up way less space in packing, and they weigh far less per item of shopping you take home with you. The best thing is not to use either one. Because even though plastic is cheaper to produce the threat to animals and the planet as it photodegrades is a far worse alternative. Also unrecycled paper bags kill too many trees!

Since many of us are used to carrying out plastic bags, remembering to take a canvas or recyclable canvas bag to the grocery store can be challenging. But it's easy if you remember to take your groceries out of your recyclable bags and put the bag right back into your car. Turn it into a routine as you would putting up the groceries in the same place.
You just have to THINK in a different way.

So the next time you are in the grocery store and they ask you "paper or plastic" say NEITHER, hand them your canvas, recycleable bag and say, "I'm here to save the planet, and save the world."

Learn more about this author, Cristina Aguilar Friar.
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