• 96% of all plastic bags end up in landfills. (Williamson, 2003)
• Experts estimate that 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed and discarded annually worldwide - more than a million per minute.
  (Organic Trade Association)
• Plastic shopping bags are made from petroleum and do not biodegrade resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of marine animals that ingest plastic bag pieces mistaken for food. (WWF, 2005)
• There is enough petroleum in 14 plastic bags to drive a car one mile. (1bagatatime.com)
• It takes more than four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag. (1989 Plastic Recycling Directory, Society of Plastics Industry.)
• Paper sacks generate 70% more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags. ("Comparison of the Effects on the Environment of Polyethylene and Paper Carrier Bags," Federal Office of the Environment, August 1988)

Paper Bags
In 1999, the American Forest and Paper Association reported that Americans used 10 billion paper shopping bags, consuming 14 million trees.