Keep Santa Fe Beautiful
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Meet our Board
    • Board Meeting Dates >
      • Board Minutes
  • Our Work
    • Projects >
      • Therapeutic Garden
      • Santa Fe Murals
      • Little Free Library
    • Programs >
      • Beautiful Business Award Recipients
      • Bags to Beds
      • Tire Recycle
    • Educational >
      • Litter Pollution
  • Support
    • Garden Sponsorship >
      • 10 x 10 Fundraiser
    • Membership
    • Current Members
  • Events
    • Garden Grand Opening
    • Clean-ups
  • Updates
    • News Stories
    • Social Media
  • Contact
What do you do with your unused non-recyclable plastic bags from grocery shopping?

We are excited to announce a city-wide recycling project, Bags to Beds, that everyone can participate in! In partnership with the City of Santa Fe, we are assisting a group here in Santa Fe that makes sleeping mats for the homeless in our area using non-recyclable plastic grocery bags. After only two months from project launch, we have collected over 25, 40-gallon bags of non-recyclable grocery bags from our community, which has resulted in over 12 mats! Did you know it takes 400 bags to make a woven mat, and 870 bags to make a crocheted one?

We hosted a Merry Mat Makers Workshop on October 12th 2019 and invited citizens to come and learn how to make plastic mats. This workshop also helped to educate our attendees in how they are making an impact on the environment by saving and using non-recyclable grocery bags. We invited our community and surrounding communities, to join us in our efforts to keep those plastic bags out of the landfills.
​
Remember together we can help others in need, one bag at a time!

​10 Facts About Single-use Plastic Bags

Picture
  1. Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture.
  2. It only takes about 14 plastic bags for the equivalent of the gas required to drive one mile.
  3. The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year.
  4. According to Waste Management, only 1 percent of plastic bags are returned for recycling. That means that the average family only recycles 15 bags a year; the rest end up in landfills or as litter.
  5. Up to 80 percent of ocean plastic pollution enters the ocean from land.
6. At least 267 different species have been affected by plastic pollution in the ocean.
7. 100,000 marine animals are killed by plastic bags annually.
8. One in three leatherback sea turtles have been found with plastic in their stomachs.
9. Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes.
10. It takes 500 (or more) years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill. Unfortunately the bags don't break down completely but instead photo-degrade, becoming microplastics that absorb toxins and continue to pollute the environment.



​Source https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/sustainability/plastic_bag_facts.html
​

Location

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Meet our Board
    • Board Meeting Dates >
      • Board Minutes
  • Our Work
    • Projects >
      • Therapeutic Garden
      • Santa Fe Murals
      • Little Free Library
    • Programs >
      • Beautiful Business Award Recipients
      • Bags to Beds
      • Tire Recycle
    • Educational >
      • Litter Pollution
  • Support
    • Garden Sponsorship >
      • 10 x 10 Fundraiser
    • Membership
    • Current Members
  • Events
    • Garden Grand Opening
    • Clean-ups
  • Updates
    • News Stories
    • Social Media
  • Contact