Areas around the world including Australia, the United Kingdom, Paris, San Francisco, Bangladesh, South Africa, Shanghai and Taiwan are addressing the negative environmental impact of plastic bags head-on. Through taxation or outright banning, the bags that pile on the litter, take 1,000 years to decompose and despite being resuable and recyclable, are thrown away to the tune of 100 billion each year in America alone, are being edged out. Some statistics from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which urges consumers to buy reusable bags (I highly recommend reusablebags.com):