Earth Bytes: In the Bag

Forget paper or plastic, the right answer is neither. Reusable totes are the best thing to happen to grocery stores since sliced bread. Here's the Earth Bytes lowdown:

• It takes 1,000 years for a single plastic grocery bag to decompose.
• We use 100 billion plastic grocery bags every year.
• Replacing plastic bags with canvas or nylon totes saves about 12 million barrels of oil a year.
• Paper bags are more eco friendly than plastic, but it still takes 14 million trees to produce a year's supply.
• One ton of paper bags fills 3.3 cubic meters of landfill space.
• Canvas grocery totes last an average of two years.
• It costs around $4,000 to recycle one ton of plastic bags. It costs $0 to reuse your nylon or canvas grocery bags.

Check out tomorrowsworld.com or reusablebags.com to invest in your own hip, enviro-friendly reusable grocery bags.