Today I am bothered by plastic. Plastic shopping bags to be exact. Bravo to California and the few miscellaneous towns that are banning plastic shopping bags. I keep thinking of the legacy we are leaving to our children. Landfill after landfill, plastic bags rotting, releasing their petroleum based origins into the earth and the atmosphere.
How hard is it really, to use a reusable shopping tote. Keep them in the car, after unpacking at home, leave them by the front door, so you can put them back into the car. I remember when I was back in college, how the city I lived in was super eco-friendly although it wasn’t yet the “in” thing. I toted my canvas bag to Sun Foods when I bought my groceries, garbage went in clear plastic biodegradable bags, recyclable items in the clear blue recyclable bags. They were so stringent that if a single item was in the wrong bag,you had no garbage pickup for the week.
So I ask the all important question, why is it so hard for people to want to save the environment. These are little things, that can become habit. I read that it takes only three weeks to form a habit, so if all the people where I live would commit for three weeks to use recyclable canvas totes at the store, and to sort their trash into the bins that Waste Management provides, we can start leaving less of a carbon footprint on the earth, and leaving a legacy our kids can be proud of.
So back to the plastic bags. If you are going to utilize them, taking them home from the store, perhaps the store should levy a tax, much like the reward system at stores like Target and Whole Foods that give 5 cents back for each non-plastic bag you use.
I think it is time we all take stock of what is important to our selves, to the earth, to our future. Let’s leave a cleaner, greener earth for our children. Ban the bags (plastic that is) and let’s move into the new year with new hopes and reinvest in the future of our planet.