“Green” Bags for a “Green” Earth

University of North Florida SIFE team Presented by: University of North Florida SIFE team -Students In Free Enterprise-

Our Mission The Green Bags project aims to teach children the dangers of using plastic bags, and the advantages of switching to reusable cloth bags.

Our Vision We believe that the earlier you can teach a child good recycling habits, the longer they have a chance to change the world for the better. If we can impact just one family, we can eliminate the waste of approximately 1,460 bags in one year.

Why Switch to Cloth Bags? Waste Space Money Pollution Animal Life

Waste An average American family of four uses 1,460 plastic bags per year An average 380 billion plastic bags are consumed in America Each year Over 500 billion plastic bags used worldwide each year Worldwide, an estimated one million plastic bags are consumed each minute

Space Plastic bags in a land fill can last up to 1,000 years 30 – 90 million plastic bags litter the streets each year The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store. Approximately 500 nautical miles off the California coast sits a growing "plastic island," a gargantuan patch of floating plastic trash held together by currents stretching across the northern Pacific almost as far as Japan. This "plastic island" is made up of about 7 billion pounds of plastic garbage, and measures about twice the size of Texas. Click on plastic island link to see an article and pictures of it

Money Plastic bags cost American retailers approximately $4 billion These costs get passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices Plastic bags costs approximately 2 cents each to manufacture Plastic bags are made of petroleum, which is made out of oil, with rising costs of oil around the world, the costs of plastic bags are on the rise

Pollution Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade - breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest. The use of plastic bags increases the amount of garbage per American each year, which increases the pick up frequency for garbage men, increasing air pollution by trucks An estimated 8 billion pounds of plastic bags, wraps and sacks enter the waste stream every year in the US alone, putting an unnecessary burden on our diminishing landfill space and causing air pollution if incinerated. In 1988 and 1998, two massive floods hit the city of Bangladesh, which were directly caused by the blockage of their drainage systems by plastic bags. America can not afford to make the same mistake.

Animal Life Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food Plastic bags wrap around living corals, quickly "suffocating" and killing them. Plastic pieces outweigh surface zooplankton in the Central North Pacific by a factor of 6-1.

These Animals Need Our Help Animals, like this sea turtle, are counting on us to improve their living environments. Don’t let our sea life become casualties of our ignorance

Terri the Turtle Our friend Terri is a sea turtle Terri’s favorite food are jelly fish In the ocean, plastic bags can look just like a jelly fish, and turtles like Terri eat them by mistake This causes serious illness and even death for many of these turtles We’re going to have a puppet named Terri that will help us present to the children

Can you see the resemblance? Question for class: Which one is a jelly fish and which one is a bag?

Our futures are in your hands Change Starts With You! Plastic bags will continue to destroy our planet unless we take action now It is up to every one of us to change our routines, change our way of thinking, and change the world The world, the animals, and the environment are depending on us Our futures are in your hands