Weaverville Library, along with all branches of the Buncombe County library system, will be giving out one free reusable shopping bag per person (while supplies last) beginning Tuesday, July 1. Additional bags will also be available to purchase for $1 each.  The library is doing this in an effort to encourage people to use reusable shopping bags.

Every year the average citizen goes through 6 plastic bags per week or 312 per year. That may not sound like much, but when multiplied by the number of Buncombe County citizens that’s a potential of 1,260,000 bags per week. The cost of disposing of these bags in the landfill is about 17¢ each, and as you can imagine, that cost adds up. By using just one reusable bag for a year, the average household would save the disposal of 20 pounds of garbage in our landfill.  If you multiple that by the number of households in the County, the potential savings is 600,000 pounds of trash a year.

The cost of recycling plastic bags so outweighs their value that most recycling facilities will not take them - leading to more and more being thrown into the landfill. Thanks to their light weight, plastic bags are the debris most likely to fly away from landfills and garbage trucks, settling in trees, storm drains and road sides.

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