Wanna reduce your dependence on foreign oil (and get our troops the fudge out of the Middle East)? Stop using plastic bags.
The only New Years resolution I've made in the last several years (since it was both a realistic one and one I would want to stick to) was this year's resolution to "hold the plastic" by primarily reusing sturdy paper bags with handles and using the occasional cloth (or polyester) bag.
I made it a *lot* easier to remember to use reusables by keeping a box of the paper bags in the trunk of my car.
It's the little things that can really add up to a big difference.
I promise not to turn this into My Crunchy-Granola Pulpit, but it's sooooooooooo nice to have this extended chemo vay-cay and not be all-cancer all-the-time.
[Via The Brother]
And so I go...
3 years ago
7 comments:
I'm with you! I've been trying very hard to avoid plastic bags. I've heard San Fransisco has banned them at stores, and I hope Boston follows suit. It strikes me as similar to the ban on smoking in bars...before it was enacted, it caused a big hullabaloo (hello, grandma vocab.), but then it was passed and everyone quickly adapted.
Well I bought baggu.com bags last year (they are so sturdy and hold a lot)- and that is all I use (as do most of the people who shop at the stores around me in DC). All we need is some peer pressure and people follow suit!
sorry i gave the wrong site...
http://baggubag.com/ .... i didn't want to lead anyone astray....
The food co-op story is funny. I've had a few occasions where I've needed to pick up a few things on the way home from a run and found myself jogging the last mile with a box of crackers clutched in one hand and a bag of pasta in the other.
The City of Seattle will soon require grocery stores to charge extra for plastic bags. Almost all stores here now sell (for a buck or two) reusable, recyclable bags; I think I've got about half a dozen by now (arrive at the store having forgotten to bring one, and buy the reusable bag rather than go to plastic). A little inconvenience and public embarrassment goes a long way.
rewritten because too much studying and no sleep is not an excuse for horrible spelling:
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on the peer pressure tip: i am a member of a food coop which relatively unceremoniously stopped having bags of any kind a month or two ago.
this has had two benefits: one which is less waste. the other is watching how creative people can be when they are checking out with piles of stuff only to realize that they missed the memo and indeed: no bags.
i have not seen anyone ask for a trash bag to put their food in... yet.
thanks, sis. i still remember when you came home to Old Church Rd. and said you had decided to become a vegetarian. i remember worrying that something was wrong you and saying, "but you are still going to eat lobster, right?"
I forgot to reply to your original (and apparently misspelled...?) post, JP--Let me clarify for everyone that I am one of those Vegetarians* (ie, with an asterisk), although when speaking with folks, I usually immediately qualify that declaration with "well, I eat fish, so I'm really a pescaratian..."
So yes, I do still eat lobster. With relish. Not actual relish, of course. That's where the butter comes in. ;)
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