The damage caused by plastic bags is awful indeed and no matter how many times this issue is brought up, it is an important reminder.

Many stores are stocking cloth bags and encouraging their use in lieu of plastic.  I try to use mine as much as possible.  I do forget to bring them into the store on occasion but if I can I will transfer the commodities to the cloth bags and walk back to the store where there is a recycle bin for them.  Otherwise, I return them on my next trip to the store.  I reuse them at home for trash can liners also.  And they make good packing material so I try to reuse them as much as possible ... the ones I do wind up with are not thoughtlessly discarded.

Very thought  provoking slide show.  Much of this information I was aware of but I had no idea of the cost to recycle plastic bags.  Even so, it is still better to recycle, at any cost, than proliferate the consequences to human, animal, eco system and the environment.  Hmmm, makes me wonder how much cost is involved in other recycled goods.

Plastic bottles, plastic bags, plastic containers ... all have other uses when empty.   Plastic bottles can be filled with water and frozen, then used in the ice chest instead of ice.  Plastic containers can be reused for all kinds of storage.  Small containers are ideal for buttons, pins, etc.  They are great for keeping nails, nuts, and bolts clean and neat in a shop or work area, or organizing the "junk drawer," all sorts of things.

It is wastefulness in general, not just in plastic bags or other plastic items that causes so much destruction.  Even making an effort to reuse the plastic bags we do wind up with,as much as possible,, can help reduce the damage caused by them.