Ann Podlipny of Chester is a member of the NH Network’s Plastics Working Group.

Are you too wrapped up in plastic and using plastic bags more out of convenience than necessity? They are harmful to both the environment and to your body, especially your endocrine system, vital to healthy reproduction.

Humans use approximately 5 trillion plastic bags a year — that’s 160,000 per second. In four visits to the supermarket an average family uses 60 plastic bags. 42% of plastic produced annually is used for single-use plastics and the number of chemicals used in production is 16,000.

Plastic bags are typically not recycled, only about 5-6%. Bags not buried or burned remain with us on land, in lakes, streams, rivers and oceans. They are one of the top five items found in beach cleanups and the most commonly found synthetic in sea turtles’ stomachs.

Used upon average for 12 minutes, they can last for more than 500 years. They never disappear but become smaller particles over time breaking down into microplastics and nanoplastics.

Multiple investigations using electronic tracking devices have shown that even when plastic bags are collected 86% may be directed to landfills and incinerators. Penetrating every corner of the environment and contaminating water, soil, air, food, animals (causing intestinal impaction, sickness and death) and humans they clog sewers, snag in trees and blow into water bodies requiring expensive cleanups.

The good news is that a vast majority of Americans are concerned about plastic pollution and its health impacts. As of 2024, 12 states and over 500 cities and towns have successfully reduced plastic bag pollution by at least one third.

In San Mateo County, California, the proportion of local customers with reusable bags increased by 162% after the bag ban passage in 2013! So please don’t lose heart. Plastic bag bans are extremely effective in lowering municipal clean up costs and in reducing pollution.

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Over 99% of plastic is made from fossil fuel chemicals that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and non-renewable source dependence. The extractive oil and gas industries worsen climate when producing, transporting and finally disposing of plastic products. Nearly 10 billion tons of plastic have been produced since 1950 and production is on track to triple by 2060. By 2025 we are likely to see one pound of plastic for every three pounds of fish in the ocean.

Our throw-away society of excessive over-consumption is largely responsible. Fortunately, our Earth’s inheritors, children and youth are inspired, hopeful and ready to act. They’ve read the prophetic verse of children’s author Dr. Seuss who exclaims in The Lorax, (a book about a calamitous environmental future) “unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.”

Take the Montana Supreme Court case upholding a District Court’s ruling in the first constitutional climate change trial affirming that the 16 youth plaintiffs have a “fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment.”

Their lawyer stated, “the Court specifically mentioned the impacts on the working ranches in Montana, on the diminishment of the recreational opportunities the youth plaintiffs can experience, of the harm that comes with breathing in the smoke that annually descends on our valley...as a result of fossil fuels being collected and combusted.”

Take the initiative of 56 5th graders from P.S. 15 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, who assumed the role of citizen scientists and community advocates by collecting local data on plastic pollution. Armed with information on plastic waste in their neighborhood they testified and rallied at New York City Hall. They then took action in their cafeteria to eliminate all single-use plastics. Thanks to these elementary school students Plastic Free Lunch Day has become a national movement.

Though time remains to choose the best rather than the worst scenarios, the longer we wait the harder it gets and the more drastic the measures required.

According to poet June Jordan, “we are the ones we have been waiting for.” We need to urge our grocery, big box and convenience stores to phase out single-use plastic bags and instead adopt an opt-in policy, one where cashiers ask if customers need bags and where prominent displays are installed offering customers the choice to purchase a reusable non-plastic bag.

If your mundane plastic bag is out of sight, don’t let it be out of mind. Be mindful of its fate; it’s intertwined with yours. In 2025 let each one of us assume this personal responsibility.