Since this column is called where we live, I try to think about something that impacts the community around me.

July 3 was International Plastic Bag Free Day and it got me to thinking about all the times I have driven around my community and past by a plastic bag tumbling along the side of the road like a prairie tumbleweed.

You can pretty much find them anywhere, in ponds, parking lots or caught in a gutter.

According to the Earth Policy Institute at Rutgers University, worldwide, a trillion single-use plastic bags are used each year, nearly 2 million each minute. The amount of energy required to make 12 plastic shopping bags could drive a car for a mile.

Also, the 100 billion plastic bags that pass through the hands of U.S. consumers every year racks up to one bag per person each day. If you were to lay them end-to-end, they could circle the equator 1,330 times.

What happens to plastic bags?

The discarded plastic bag usually ends up littering both city streets, forests and waterways, and because plastic is not biodegradable, they do not eventually return to nature, but continue to release harmful toxins like bisphenol A, known as BPA, an industrial chemical used to make certain plastics. These toxic chemicals contribute to air pollution and potentially harm plant growth when left littering the forest.

What can you do

Get your friends, children and spouses to take a walk with you on roads that have safe shoulders and carry canvas grocery bags fill up the plastic bags. Make a game of who can pick up the most bags. You can also go to a local lake or pond and pickup the plastic bags that are on the water’s edge so it doesn’t impact the wildlife or the water.

Take canvas or similar material bags when you shop and use them instead of the plastic bags.

Birds and other animals don’t look at plastic bags and see that as someone’s trash. In fact, often, they end up ingesting pieces of plastic bags causing death for the bird or feeding small amounts to their baby bird, causing death.

Just remember this when you are driving, biking or walking in your community and see plastic bags tumbling along the road. It registers in your mind for one fleeting second, unlike the plastic that bag will last from 100 to 500 years before it decays completely and leaves an indelible mark on our environment.