Cloth Shopping Bag. The plastic shopping bags used in retail shops are petroleum-based products. In the U.S. we use about 32 billion plastic shopping bags each year. Not only is petroleum used as a feedstock for plastic bags but the manufacture and distribution of the bags also requires the use of fossil fuel. The management of this massive volume of waste plastic bags requires the use of petroleum to transport the waste. Cloth bags will not always replace the convenience of a plastic bag. But, reducing your consumption of disposable plastic bags is a simple and meaningful way to shift your energy use!