BAGNADO. You may have met this monster if you visited the Eco Experience at the Minnesota State Fair, but if not, catch a glimpse of the news story here. The tornado represented the number of plastic bags thrown out in the state of Minnesota within 5 seconds.

5 seconds.

This adds up to 87,000 tons of plastic bags dumped in Minnesota each year, a loss of $7 million worth of recycled plastic, and potential job growth in plastics recycling. There is more to this issue than the environmental consequences of burning plastic. Growth in the recycling industry can build the economy.

California cities and Hawaii counties have banned plastic bags, and other states, like New York, Delaware, Maine, DC, and Rhode Island have adopted legislation to incentivize recycling of plastic bags. And Minnesota? Currently, St. Louis Park is in the process to ban plastic bags, but have received pushback from business owners at recent hearings.

Even if a plastic bag ban is far from the horizon, BAGNADO should inspire us to make a few small changes-

say no to the bag when shopping
buy reusable bags for produce
bring your own jars when purchasing bulk items
collect your plastic bags at home to recycle

Although, most likely your home recycling collection service will not accept plastic bags, many grocery stores in Minnesota, like Target, Rainbow, Kowalskis, and Cub, have bins to recycle them.

And eventually BAGNADO will be history.