Oddly enough the switch to plastic bags came from enviromentalists who wanted to stop using the renewable, recyclable, and biodegradable paper bags. Also of note is that plastic shopping bags are 100% recyclable, if people would do it, and todays bags are engineered to be more biodegradable. There are so many things made of plastic that are thrown away that these bags are just a small part of. Plastic gas jugs, plastic water bottles, plastic soda bottles, everything at the dollar store. The problem is more indicitive of our “throw away” mentality, go to any dump you will find mountains of things that people “just had to have”, even children are throw away ( approx.1.2 million abortions last year).
RCMinorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch