They may not cost you anything up front, but one group says Americans and the environment are all paying the price for plastic bag use. Researchers have found that cleanup costs of single use plastic bags comes out to about 17 cents a bag. According to Rodale, that means the average taxpayer pays about 88 dollars extra a year to clean up plastic pollution. According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition, the energy used to make about nine plastic bags is equivalent to the energy it takes to drive a car half a mile. The Coalition also says the plastic bags we use can break into smaller bits that end up in the ocean and have been found in the stomachs of fish.
Coalition co-founder Lisa Kaas Boyle says the health implication of the bags comes from eating fish that have ingested the degraded pieces of plastic. California lawmakers recently rejected what would have been the first statewide ban on plastic bag use. There are more than 40 jurisdictions worldwide that have banned plastic bags including China and Mexico City.