Important Information

Did You Know That...

• Over 500 billion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. \
• Plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to decompose.
• As they decompose, plastic bags leach toxic chemicals into our ground and water.
• Plastic bags kill about 100,000 whales, seals, turtles, and other marine animals each year.
• Paper bags generate 70% more air- and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.
• Plastic bags are made from nonrenewable petroleum resources.
• It takes 4 times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag.

• In 1999, 14 million trees were cut to produce the 10 billion paper grocery bags used by Americans that year alone.
• It takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper, but only about 1% of plastic bags are ever recycled.
• Because of the lack of light, water, and oxygen in today's landfills, paper does not break down at a substantially faster rate than plastic.
• There are 60 billion single-serving plastic bottles produced each year.
• 8 out of 10 single-serving plastic bottles are not recycled.
• Bottled water is extremely energy inefficient, because it has to be transported over long distances. Tap water is much "cleaner" environmentally.
• 1.5 million tons of plastic are used each year to bottle water.
• Reusable plastic bottles (#7 Lexan plastic in particular) have been linked with BPA, an endocrine disruptor that mimics estrogen. Drinking water or eating food containing leached BPA may cause chromosomal disruption, miscarriages, birth defects, or obesity.
• In the U.S. and Europe, there are more standards regulating the quality of tap water than of bottled water. There is no evidence that bottled water is safer to drink than tap water in these areas.
• A relatively new problem: In 1990, the world used 1.1 billion pounds of plastic bottles. By 2002, we used more than three times that amount.
• In 2005-06, The Center for Environmental Health recently found high levels of lead in popular brands of soft vinyl lunchboxes. Lead is harmful to children even in very small amounts.
• "Fair Trade" refers to a system of trade based on respect for workers' rights and the environment.
• According to the National Labor Committee, a Haitian sewing clothing for the U.S. market may earn less than 1% of the retail price.
• North American consumers pay $4 to $11 a pound for coffee bought from growers for about 80 cents a pound. Growers who sell to fair trade organizations earn $1.12 to $1.26 a pound.
• Sixty to seventy percent of the artisans providing fair trade hand-crafted products are women. Often these women are mothers and the sole wage earners in the home.
• Synthetic, petroleum-based cleaning/washing agents can cause soil and water contamination and ecosystem imbalances.
• Shade grown coffee creates more biodiversity and bird habitat with less need for chemical inputs.

I would like to thank the Eco-Me folks for putting this together. It is on their website and I felt the information was so important it should be included on mine.

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