Recycling in our area like walmart they have their own place to recycle every thing plastic bags ,card board boxes they have a recycling room where they do all this ,when customers come in and buy what they need they are bagged in plastic bags or you can purchase cloth bags to put the items in I have seen people bring in their own bags just to save on the recycling cost of plastic bags. You can also ask for paper bags which they do have if you want your items put in paper bags. we have so many other stores that uses large plastic bags they use for indoor trash and outside trash when it is taken away by the trash companies it is put on a barge and ship off to the recycling plant to dispose of. We have one earth if humans societies use up resources faster than they can be replenished and create waste faster then it can be dispersed ,environmental devastion will be inevitable result many believe that human society is already overshooting the carrying capacity of the earths ecosystems.(page 228 in the text book )