Hundreds of people from the Michiana community participated in Step it UP: BagFest. Indiana University South Bend students, faculty, and staff and community members collected plastic bags for recycling. WalMart sent a crew of community volunteers and a semi-trailer to take the plastic bags for recycling.

We collected 72,440 plastic bags in 4 hours! Representatives of South Bend Waste Management, WalMart, ReUsable bags.com, and Elizabeth Royte (author of GarbageLand) led a series of panel discussions and ideas for how to address consumption and resource use.

How do plastic bags relate to carbon dioxide emissions and energy use in the U.S.?

According to the EPA, the United States consumes 380 BILLION plastic bags per year, and it takes ~430,000 gallons of OIL to produce 100 million plastic bags. This means that more than 1.6 billion gallons of oil are used per year in the production of plastic bags.

Simple measures such as using re-usable bags would reduce carbon dioxide emissions due to the production of plastic bags AND would reduce demand for oil. This does not solve the problem of either carbon dioxide emissions or oil demand, but it is an illustration of the types of steps we need to take in rethinking what we do.

We urge Congress to use their leadership and creativity to begin tackling environmental issues head on.

Hundreds of people from the Michiana community participated in Step it UP: BagFest. Indiana University South Bend students, faculty, and staff and community members collected plastic bags for recycling. WalMart sent a crew of community volunteers and a semi-trailer to take the plastic bags for recycling.

We collected 72,440 plastic bags in 4 hours! Representatives of South Bend Waste Management, WalMart, ReUsable bags.com, and Elizabeth Royte (author of GarbageLand) led a series of panel discussions and ideas for how to address consumption and resource use.

How do plastic bags relate to carbon dioxide emissions and energy use in the U.S.?

According to the EPA, the United States consumes 380 BILLION plastic bags per year, and it takes ~430,000 gallons of OIL to produce 100 million plastic bags. This means that more than 1.6 billion gallons of oil are used per year in the production of plastic bags.

Simple measures such as using re-usable bags would reduce carbon dioxide emissions due to the production of plastic bags AND would reduce demand for oil. This does not solve the problem of either carbon dioxide emissions or oil demand, but it is an illustration of the types of steps we need to take in rethinking what we do.

We urge Congress to use their leadership and creativity to begin tackling environmental issues head on.