A million plastic bags are used every minute worldwide.
 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 380 billion plastic bags are used in the United States every year. Of those, approximately 100 billion are plastic shopping bags, which cost retailers about $4 billion annually.
 

In America alone, 12 million barrels of oil and 14 million trees go into producing paper and plastic bags every year.
 

Plastic bags can be recycled but it rarely happens: according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, only 1% of plastic bags were recycled in 2000, against twenty percent for paper bags.
 

These days, most plastic bags are made from a type of plastic called polyethylene. 80% of polyethylene is produced from natural gas – an abundant, yet non-renewable resource.
 

The raw material of plastic bags is oil. Therefore, the more we use plastic bags, the more we waste oil - a non-renewable energy source.
 

Plastic bags are not biodegradable. They clog waterways, spoil the landscape, and end up in landfills where they may take 1,000 years or more to break down into ever smaller particles that continue to pollute the soil and water.
 

Plastic bags also pose a serious danger to birds and marine mammals that often mistake them for food. Thousands die each year after swallowing or choking on discarded plastic bags.
 

Ireland introduced a "plastax" of about 30 cents on each plastic bag. In March of 2002, Republic of Ireland became the first country to introduce a plastic bag tax, or "PlasTax". Designed to rein in their rampant consumption of 1.2 billion plastic shopping bags per year, the tax resulted in a 90% drop in consumption, and approximately 1 billion fewer bags consumed annually. To complete the win-win scenario, approximately $9.6 million was raised from the tax in the first year, which is earmarked for a green fund established to benefit the environment.
 

Several other countries and cities around the world are now considering implementing a similar tax or banning plastic bags, including UK, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Zanzibar, Germany, South Africa, Israel, Seattle, WA and New York City.