When stocking up on groceries, choose items with less packaging. Try to buy in bulk and freeze or package food in small portions to reduce cardboard and plastic wrapping. And since plastic grocery bags are a major source of litter, get in the habit of using cloth or recycled fiber bags to pack your groceries.

Did you know? The time it takes for plastic bags to fully decompose can take anywhere from 15 to 1000 years. When there is an accumulation of plastics in our environment, it can become wash-up debris that pollute the coastline of our states. Plastics can also end up in garbage patches in oceans. These garbage patches are accumulations of marine debris (mostly plastic and mostly from land). Many of these plastics are broken down into smaller particles and cannot be seen by the naked eye. What problems could arise? This causes harm to sea animals from ingestion or entanglement. To learn more about garbage patches, below is a helpful infographic you can click on for enlargement. Or you may visit the "Avoid drinking bottle water" page for a short video about plastics. 



Source: Huffingtonpost.com, Nationalgeographic.com