Reusable Grocery Bags

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A new proposal has surfaced: A small tax on plastic grocery bags. This proposed fee would add a 25¢ fee per grocery bag to your grocery bill. Some supporters of this tax say that it will help reduce the usage of non-reusable grocery bags and help keep our water cleaner. However, opponents of the tax argue that it will make groceries not affordable for some, and that reusable grocery bags are health hazard as well. According to Nifty Homestead, the average American family takes home 1,500 plastic bags a year. If the government was to charge 25¢ per bag, this would cost the average family around $375 a year. To some people, $375 is not a lot of money. But for those below the poverty line, this could be the difference between feeding your children and watching them starve. As No Kid Hungry states: over 16.2 million kids wrestle with hunger every day in the US. …show more content…

Over 97% of shoppers using reusable bags don't clean their bags, and some even use their bags for multiple types of foods. Because of this, in a study done by scientists 99% of reusable bags contain large amounts of bacteria. In a few of these bags (12%), E. coli was present. In half of reusable bags a bacteria called coliform was found. This indicates that raw meats contaminated the bag. These bacterium are or can lead to serious illnesses, that can even result in death. Reusable bags help contribute to the 76,000,000 cases of food poisoning in the US every year. If we used less reusable bags, we could lower this

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