NATIONAL REPORT—Whether for disposing of trash or for holding items purchased in a hotel or resort gift shop, bags—unless they are used over and over again—have historically been a detriment to the environment. There are not a lot of things that are created just to be thrown away but most bags fall into this category. Plastic bags account for 10,000 tons of landfill space in the United States. It takes a thousand years for a plastic bag to naturally degrade. Less than 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled each year. Plastic bags are blamed for the annual death of more than 1 million birds and 100,000 marine animals. Paper bags are not exactly environmentally efficient either. Compared to a plastic bag, it takes more than four times as much energy to produce a paper bag. In a landfill, paper takes up nine times as much space, and paper bags generate 70 percent more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.